The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The National Council of Sports Secretary-General Patrick Ogwel has asked for at least 1.4 trillion shillings in the new 2024/2025 budget.
Ogwel who alongside other Council members, appeared before the budget committee of Parliament to present the proposed budget, the amount of money they are asking for is informed by several sporting events lined up for the year.
According to Ogwel, in the year 2024/2025 the sports sub-sector is poised for a flurry of activities, including the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, All African Games, and East Africa Community Games, among others.
He further added that before the actual games, several sports Federations will need funds to send athletes to different qualifying events for them to attain points that will guarantee their participation in the actual events.
Ogwel said they have to pay the Confederation of African Football- CAF, at least 114 billion shillings as hosting fees for the 20027 Africa Cup of Nations- AFCON, whose hosting rights Uganda recently won in collaboration with Kenya and Tanzania in the famous East Africa Pamoja Bid.
Ogwel further added that they also intend to increase the budget of some sports federations, for example, the Uganda Athletics Federation after receiving an order from the President to increase its budget from 3 billion to 10 billion shillings.
“We were directed to ensure that, the Uganda Athletics Federation which brought the recent glory to Uganda be upgraded from the current 3 billion to 10 billion, which means a deficit of 7 billion is what they need,” he said.
He also cited the Hoima stadium for AFCON, which is projected to cost 380 billion shillings, 100 billion to build at least ten training facilities in Kampala and Hoima, and 790 billion to build the Lugogo Sports Complex, among other things.
The money they are asking for is three times larger than the council’s current budget of 48.9 billion shillings of which the Federation of Ugandan Football Associations (FUFA) receives the lion’s share of the approximately 17.1 billion Shillings.
For a long time, several sports administrators have been advocating for an increase in the sports budget until 2022/2023 when the Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Matia Kasaija announced that the sports sector had received Shillings 47.81 billion up from Shillings 17billion provided in the last financial year.
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