Chief administrator of the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) Freddy Mwiya has welcomed the increased budget allocation to the commission, which will see it getting an allotment of N$17.5 million for the 2023/24 fiscal year.
The enhanced allocation for the new financial year presents an increment of about N$7.3 million when compared to the previous year’s allocation of around N$10.2 million.
“The budget allocated to us this time around is good and provides hope. There is a significant improvement from the allocation of the previous year. This will allow us to execute more plans and our various development programmes, particularly those that require our urgent attention,” said Mwiya.
In total, the sport, youth, and national service ministry was allocated N$473.2 million for the 2023/24 financial year, which it will distribute amongst its three directorates: sport, youth, and national service.
Overall, the allocated N$473.2 million is also a decent increase from the N$330.9 million it got in the last financial circle.
“At the moment, I cannot tell you which programmes we will prioritise, but once we convene our annual meetings with all the relevant stakeholders and make the final decisions, I will then be able to provide you with a concrete direction. Only then will I be able to disclose the administration fee each federation will receive in this financial year.”
“For years we have been underfunded but the money will now come in handy with some of the activities that we want to execute. We are hopeful that this year we will be able to assist federations with their administration fees if that budget is approved by the board,” he said.
Meanwhile, in her budget motivation speech, line minister Agnes Tjongarero said the NSC was allocated an increased N$17.5 million to help fast-track and implement its activities.
“For the last four years, NSC had been underfunded and found it challenging to execute its mandate. With the increase for the 2023/24 financial year, we trust that the commission will now implement a number of programmes and projects it had to put on hold due to a lack of funding in the past,” she said.
The NSC has not fulfilled its mandate of supporting sports federations with their administration fees for the past years due to a lack of funds.
– Additional info: Nampa