Nam blows up K101m funding
Netball Association of Malawi (Nam) is in dilemma on how to use this year’s annual subvention from government having already blown K67 million.
For the first time in the country’s sports history, Nam was allocated K101 million, surpassing K100 million for Football Association of Malawi (Fam), which normally receives a huge chunk every financial year.
However, Nam general secretary, Carol Bapu, during the week admitted that they had K31 million only in their coffers after using K70 million for Malawi Queens’ participation at the Netball World Cup held in Australia between July and August.
“As Nam, we will discuss on how best to use the remaining sum. We had to participate in the world tournament because we didn’t want to compromise several factors,” she said.
Nam had planned to carry out developmental programmes at grassroots level in terms of youth netball, officiating and coaching clinics.
Bapu said it was important for the Queens to compete at the World Cup where they finished on a disappointing sixth position.
The only consolation for Malawi Queens was when New Zealand-based shooter, Mwawi Kumwenda, was named player-of the-tournament
Nam also gets annual funding from Airtel Malawi, whose officials were yesterday meeting the association’s president, Rosy Chinunda, in Lilongwe.
Sports and Culture Minister, Grace Chiumia, yesterday said it was difficult for government to appreciate the financial health of Nam because there is no post-mortem on their trip to Australia.
“We have been asking for reports, but the problem is that we are not getting anything. I have asked the director of sports [Jameson Ndalama] to follow up with them. It is important they bring a report because we are the ones lobbying for these funds,” Chiumia explained.
Sports administrator Dean Pinto yesterday questioned the rationale of spending K70 million on a single trip.
“K70 million is a lot of money to spend on a trip. They should conduct an audit. The problem is that we, for example, don’t go around looking for cheapest air fare. We the recipients should look at cheap alternatives. I would have preferred that money was spent on the Queens infrastructure,” Pinto said.
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