New Sports Minister Obua roots for corporate support

The Minister of State for Sports Hamson Denis Obua has vowed to walk with National Sports Associations to any corporate company offices to aid their bid to secure funding.
Appointed minister last month to replace Hon. Charles Bakkabulindi who has served in the same docket for 14 years, Obua came face to face with the challenges of the subsector on Wednesday.
While hosting National Sports Associations heads at Lugogo Sports Complex, many cited funding and infrastructure as the major bottlenecks.
“There are three sources of funding. The first being government, then the private sector and finally grants you receive from international bodies,” Obua, also Ajuri County Member Of Parliament, stated.
“If you need government backing, I will be available to walk with you to any corporate company to back your request and pledge to be your back-up.
“The reason all these companies are here and not in Somalia I because the NRM government has created a conducive environment for business so they should back sports as part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).
“I will ensure that we have corporate sector and the sports sector including the senior minister and the president meet to find a way of increasing funding,” he added.
The Forum is mandated under the 2014 Statutory Instrument and was attended by National Council of Sports (NCS) and Ministry of Education and Sports officials along with the 51-member associations.
Under the law, associations are supposed to meet the minister every three months but NCS has last hosted the meet last May.
Obua vowed to have it held as mandated under the law. The chorus of responses from presidents noted that NCS and the minister must lead the way in improving facilities and better allocation of the meager resources unlike the current status quo that gives Shs10bn of the Shs26bn to Fufa.