NCS anticipates an increase in the sports budget

 

 

This will be in addition to the current sh17b that the council receives to fund different disciplines of the 48 national sports associations, bringing the total amount to sh26b starting with the 2019-2020 budget allocations.

 

Over the past two decades, funding has grown astronomically from shs444m in 2000 to Shs17.4bn this financial year 2018/19.

 

Ogwel, was speaking to the association's heads at the Cooper Chimney, Lugogo, during the first quarterly National Sports Associations/ Federations Forum where the Minister of State for Sports gets to meet federations to share views and recommendations with them on strategies for promoting and developing sports in the country and also to advise him on the nature of assistance and support to be given to National Sports Federations/Associations.

 

It is also meant to collectively draw strategies to attract and solicit funding and partnerships for sports development and to assist the Council in branding sports in the country.

 

It was attended by 43 association/federation heads out of the 48 currently registered with NCS alongside Minister Charles Bakkabulindi, Sports Commissioner Omara Apita and the Ministry of Education and Sports Under Secretary Aggrey Kibenge among other NCS staff.

 

During deliberations, federations demanded that the council sets a minimum threshold for each of the associations from the annual sports budget. They also called for tax waivers on donated sports equipment.

 

Many of them following Uganda Boxing Federation president Moses Muhangi's submission ganged against FUFA and questioned the rationale used to offer them sh10b.

 

Muhangi also appealed to NCS to ensure even other federations benefit from the State House Rewards Scheme for athletes who win medals from international events.

 

But FUFA president Magogo urges that the reason sport is not getting enough resources has nothing to do with football but the entire priority levels of sport against other competing priorities.

 

He urged that a fully-fledged sports industry does not only need only funding federations but a set of things such as; a modern sports law, sports infrastructure, sports investment policies, sports curriculum for tertiary education, funding of national representative teams and athletes and hosting of international sports events.

 

Minister Bakkabulindi said NCS is going to offer a threshold to each of the registered federations but those with more events will submit their budgets for further funding.