Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has hailed National Bank of Malawi plc (NBM) for believing in the women’s game and Districts football and choosing football as a tool for community transformation across Malawi.
FAM President Fleetwood Haiya said this on Wednesday when the National Bank of Malawi unveiled an extraordinary K1 billion sponsorship meant for women’s and men’s districts football.
Haiya stated that he is delighted with NBM gesture and committed to administering the projects with utmost professionalism.
“This is historic and this is also going inline with our strategic plan we have been preaching of women’s and rural football, these are the areas that most of corporates they didn’t want to sponsor, but today NBM has come and rescue us. This speaks volumes, and we believe that with this sponsorship, our transformative agenda is to be realized.
On the issue of maximum and total discipline amongst stakeholders be it supporters, players or regional and national associations Haiya said
“As you may recall in our strategic plan, we did indicate that for partners or sponsors to trust us the first thing that we have to do is to take a path that is very transparent in our dealings and we have also to be accountable. No wonder we are having more sponsors coming because of the path that we took.
“The are more sponsors which are going to come, we are going to continue to live by our values of being accountable, transparent and inclusivity is also part of the game whereby we are saying we should not leave a girl child behind but it has to be balanced,” he added.
NBM’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Harold Jiya said the reason why they have pumped a lot of money into women’s football is that they need to facilitate inclusion just like a lot of people are sponsoring men’s football.
“This is in line with our beliefs that women’s shouldn’t be spared. We want to ensure that they have equipment that is required. These ladies should be models for young ones, and young girls should be busy so that their minds are fired up in physical activities.
“We are sponsoring the game because a lot of people love football as it helps to unite. It helps to get meaningful change and attitude. We decided to sponsor so that we build the future of our athletes in Malawi.
FAM and NBM will in due course unpack the details of the two competitions.
