Minister of Youth, Sports and Arts, Elvis Nkandu has urged sports associations to exercise patience as the ministry is lobbying for more funds from government to support the associations’ activities.
Nkandu said the delay in the disbursement of funds to other associations is due to the major sports activities being funded thereby depletion of the initial allocated funds.
“We hosted the Junior African Athletics Championship, gave out resources for the National Soccer teams among other things and it cost us a lot of money,” Nkandu said.
However, he assured the sports associations that with the help of the Ministry of finance and national planning funds will be provided in due time.
Meanwhile, Zambia Rugby Union (ZRU) General Secretary, Musunka Silungwe said government ministries should collaborate and prioritize sports in the country.
“We had requested for an adoption of the United Kingdom model that use rotaries and sports betting to fund national teams,” Silungwe said.
He also said financial support for the union is very limited and they had to lobby for funds to run the activities in the union.
“We had to look to someone else because the budget for the ministry of sports is also limited and it needs to be increased to meet the demands for various national teams,” Silungwe said.