Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) has been told to plan for its activities for the 2023-2024 Budget within K3.8 billion despite asking for over K6 billion.
This is in line with a directive from Ministry of Finance. However, the ceiling is slightly above what Sports Council got last year amid rising cost of items.
Last year, Sports Council was given K2.4 billion ceiling, of which K400 million was for developmental budget.
According to a document which Malawi News Sport has seen, out of the K3.8 billion, K2.3 billion is for Other Recurrent Transactions (ORT) whereas K1.5 billion has been allocated for phase one of BAT Ground reconstruction.
“The ORT is MWK 2.322 billion, representing 8 percent increment which is not covering the inflation rate. Hence, the real value has gone down. The absolute increment is MWK 172 million,” reads part of the proposed Budget.
This means Sports Council has to scale down some of its activities this year.
Again, sports associations that get annual grants from the sports implementing agency will also face budget cut this year.
Sports Council Public Relations Officer Edgar Mtulumbwa asked for more time.
The total Sports Council budget is below the total budget for Football Association of Malawi (Fam). Fam budget is pegged at K5billion which has been increased from K3.7 million last year.
The association will require about K880 million from government for national team activities including the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers and Cosafa Cup.
However, Fam General Secretary Alfred Gunda was not available for his comment yesterday.
Fam and Netball Association of Malawi (Nam) always get lion shares.
In an interview, Nam vice president Chimwemwe Bakali they will need about K700 million for their activities this year, including Malawi National Netball Team’s participation at the 2023 World Cup in South Africa in April.
“We have planned a lot of activities for this year. For World Cup only, we need K352 million,’’ Bakali said.
Basketball Association of Malawi (Basmal) will also need a lot of money for the national team’s participation in this year’s Zone V1 Fiba AfroCan Men’s qualifiers slated February 20 to 28 in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
Basmal General Secretary Peter Gomani said they need K150 million for its activities this year.
Last year, Fam and Nam were allocated K210 million and K155 million respectively.
Hockey Association of Malawi got K25 million whereas K10 million was for Boxing Association of Malawi (Maba).
Malawi Schools Sports Association (Massa) got K9 million whereas Malawi Pool Association (Mapa) received K4 million.