BNSC expects more than P100m grant
Calistus Kolantsho | Saturday February 12, 2022 06:00
BNSC chief executive officer (CEO), Tuelo Serufho said with several engagements, they expect an increase from the P100 million received for the 2021-2022 financial year.
“This is as a result of having quite a few international games this year and the next few ones up to 2024. Having a facility maintenance lag that needs urgent attention and also having to manage school sport amongst other things,” he said.
Meanwhile, BNSC is collecting data as part of implementing the new funding model for National Sport Associations (NSA). The funding model was introduced during the last financial year.
A questionnaire was sent out to NSAs and the budget allocation grading was based on the responses. The categories are high impact, middle high impact, middle impact and low impact.
NSAs that were considered to be high impact and received more funding than others were boxing, netball, volleyball, football, athletics and softball.
There are 17 codes in the middle high impact category that include rugby, badminton, basketball, chess, cricket, cycling, BISA, karate, motorsport, PASSOBO, BOPSSA, professional boxing, special Olympics, swimming, table tennis, tennis, and BOTESSA.
The middle impact category has 12 codes being judo, bridge, brigades, bowling, dance, golf, handball, hockey, squash, taekwondo, traditional sport and weightlifting.
The rest of the sporting codes are categorised under the low impact (four).
Meanwhile, NSAs spent the last few weeks putting together their proposals for funding, which would determine their impact or category.
According to information reaching Mmegi Sport, the NSAs category would determine how much funds are allocated to them.
A source said the categorisation process is ongoing and the BNSC would take a month or two before they communicate the amount of the subversion each NSA would be getting.
Botswana Rugby Union (BRU) secretary-general, Boitshoko Tsiane said the funding model has not been finalised.
“The model was used to allocate funds in the last financial year. We feel the model is not good for us. I raised the concern during the last BNSC AGM. The new system has a lot of restrictions and it is like someone who does not want to part with money,” he said.
Tsiane said last year rugby complained that the responses that BNSC received were incorrect. He said the Commission has not informed NSAs regarding the challenges the sports body had with the previous funding model.
Tsiane said some of the codes that are in the top tier do not deserve to be there and it was surprising that rugby is in the second tier.
“You should also recall that one of our officers was transferred to BNSC without our knowledge. Such things work against us when the categorising is done. I plead with BNSC to give us an administration officer that could also act as CEO,” he said.
Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) president, Oaitse Thipe said they are yet to learn how much has been allocated to the Commission. However, Thipe said the budget for BTA stands at around P4 million.
“What we would like to see in the next financial year is more funds being allocated to school sport, clubs and community development programmes. These programmes should be continuous, running for the whole year,” he said.
Thipe said the budget should be tailored in such a way that all facilities have development programmes for the grassroots level being coordinated by certified coaches.
In response, Serufho explained that NSAs grading was as objective as it could be, following the laid down criteria.
“You would recall that for the current financial year, we used a temporary funding model. Currently, we are collecting data to apply to a more comprehensive and more long-term funding model, which we intend to put into effect starting with the 2022-2023 financial year. We would see what the results would be with rugby and indeed other NSAs. Again, we would be as objective as possible,” he said.
Serufho said the workshops that the BNSC held recently were on the Long Term Athletes Development, which should guide them in the appropriation of funds to NSAs.
“Meanwhile, we are collecting data for application to our funding model so that we could determine the category to which each NSA falls. Those in Tier 1 would get the most benefits from us while those in Tier 4 would get the least,” Serufho said.