Sports Council courts associations

By Isaac Salima:

Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) has advised sports associations to be financially self-reliant if the country is to make strides in sports development.

MNCS Board Member Gladson Kuyere made the remarks yesterday in Blantyre during the opening ceremony of a three-day training on resource mobilisation and financial management in Blantyre.

The training has brought together a cross-section of administrators from member associations.

Kuyere said the training will offer an opportunity to the participants to gain knowledge and share experiences and insights into financing for the development of different sports activities in the country.

“The training is one of the steps that we are taking to be in line with the direction taken by government in ensuring efficiency. The government wants parastatals like Sports Council to make every effort in exploring the scope for increasing financing from alternative sources.

“We are also expected to ensure that resources, whether from the government or elsewhere, are well managed and accounted for. We hope that associations will take this training seriously so that they gain the necessary knowledge and skills that will eventually make sport self-sustaining and less reliant on government funding. Ultimately, this will help the sector to retain the respect it deserves,” he said.

Netball Association of Malawi President Khungekile Matiya, who also represented Women Sport Malawi, hailed Sports Council for the training.

“Resource mobilisation is a challenge in Malawi as associations depend on government for funding. Therefore, the training will empower us with knowledge on how we can generate resources to run our associations.

“Prudent financial management is important because the funds we get from donors needs to be accounted for and that cannot be achieved if we do not have knowledge on management,” Matiya said.

The training, which ends tomorrow, has 65 representatives from about 24 sport development agencies.