Sport commission wants N$93 million for codes 

The Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) believes it will take at least N$93 million for the country to be an international sporting force.

That is the amount the NSC has submitted as a requirement to the Ministry of Sport, Youth and National Service, which in turn recently requested just over N$1 billion from the treasury for the next financial year.

In a recent interview with Desert Radio, NSC chief administrator Freddy Mwiya said the funds are required to capacitate sport codes to enhance their growth and performance.

“I will kneel down five times again. That one billion must come, and once that billion comes to sport, the issue of youth unemployment can certainly be addressed via sport,” he said.

The NSC boss says there is evidence of political will, but urges the fast-tracking of sport development to become a sporting nation.

“Should we get that amount of money, the whole country will be able to see the value of sport and to produce regional, continental and world champions,” Mwiya said.

The sport commission conducted a comprehensive analysis of what was needed before it drafted the budget, he added.

N$80 million will go towards sport federations to cater for activities at home and internationally.

“Following that request, we have informed the sport codes and umbrella bodies of the initial 31 September deadline to submit their 2025 sport calendar, but we have since extended the deadline to 31 October,” Mwiya said.

He said the commission has noticed the lack of commitment from sport administrators who, on many occasions, fail to submit programmes for consideration on time.

He reminded the codes to stick to the extended deadline or risk losing potential benefits.

“We are not going to accept an ad hoc request going forward, even though there are always contingency plans for exceptional cases. The acceptable thing to do is to timeously submit their programmes early and not wait until the eleventh hour,” Mwiya said.

Sport has made significant strides and is no longer a glorified pastime, the chief administrator said when asked about the growth of Namibian sport.

It is a vehicle to address socio-economic development, he said.

“Everybody wants to be associated with sport because they have seen the value of the sport industry,” Mwiya said.

“I am very happy about that. From the NSC’s point of view, sport has grown significantly from Katima Mulilo to the great //Kharas region, and from the Omaheke region to the Erongo region.”