The Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service has allocated N$10.6 million to the Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) for all its activities for the 2020/21 financial year, which marks a N$4 million increment from the N$6 million the Commission received in the last fiscal year.
For the 2020/21 financial year, the ministry was allocated a total budget of more than N$306 million, which is almost a N$20 million increase from the N$286 million it received in the preceding year. 

From the ministry’s N$306 million overall budget, the directorate of sport has been apportioned a total of N$42 204. 861 for this financial year and N$10.6 million of that amount will be going to the NSC. The NSC’s N$10.6 million allocation indicates a N$4 million increase from the N$6 million the Commission received last year.

The directorate of youth was allocated the largest chunk of the ministry’s budget, with an allocation of almost N$185 million to cater for the various youth development programs, initiatives and policy matters, while the directorate of general services was allocated N$72.3 million to cater for the support services within the ministry.

It is the first time in many years that the sports ministry sees an increase in its budget allocation for this year, as the past three fiscal years have seen the ministry’s budget decrease drastically. The ministry got N$288.3 million for the 2018/19 fiscal year, which was a massive N$97 million reduction from the N$385 million the ministry got in the 2017/18 fiscal period.

The same effects were also experienced with the NSC over the years, whose budget also dwindled with that of the line ministry. In the 2016/17 financial year, the NSC received N$38 million but that amount was massively slashed down to N$21 million in the 2017/18 fiscal year and was then again cut further down to a measly N$7 million for the 2018/19 financial year.
So, the slightly increased N$10.6 million allocation to the NSC is a welcomed boost for the local sport sector, which has been hard hit by the perennial poor funding and now made even worse by the widespread Covid-19 pandemic.
– ohembapu@nepc.com.na