The Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) has been told to plan for activities for the 2024-25 budget within K4.7 billion.
According to figures which Times Sport has seen, the budget ceiling has been increased by K1.4 billion— to K4.7 billion from K3.3 billion last year.
However, out of the K4.7 billion, K3.7 billion is for Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) whereas K1 billion is for the BAT Ground project in Blantyre.
This means sports associations should brace for tough times ahead as their budgets will likely be trimmed again this year despite the surge in prices of goods and services.
MNCS spokesperson Edgar Mtulumbwa urged all sports associations to find alternative ways of generating resources.
“We urge all associations to engage in extra income-generating activities so that they should be able to support themselves instead of relying on government funding, which is not enough to support all sports associations,” Mtulumbwa said.
Sports associations, notably Football Association of Malawi (Fam) and Netball Association of Malawi (Nam), get annual grants from MNCS for national football team activities.
Mtulumbwa said only 16 sports associations submitted budgets for their activities for this year.
“The due date was October 31 2023. We, as council, sent them a reminder to send their budgets for 2024-25,” he said.
Mtulumbwa said Nam is among associations that have not submitted budgets.
Fam and Nam usually get a lion’s share from government. Fam General Secretary Alfred Gunda was not readily available for a comment Wednesday.
Last year, Fam’s activities’ budget was pegged at slightly above K5 billion.
On his part, Nam General Secretary Isaac Chimwala said the budget was ready for submission.
“We are finalising it and will submit it by the end of this week,” Chimwala said.
Chimwala said the association’s budget is pegged at K1.3 billion this year.
Meanwhile, sports analyst Parry Chinyama has urged MNCS to lobby for increased funding.
“The K4.7 billion may not be enough, even if it were for council operational costs,” Chinyama said.
Apart from Fam and Nam, MNCS provides grants to sports associations such as Basketball Association of Malawi, Volleyball Association of Malawi, Chess Association of Malawi and Athletics Malawi.
