Africa-Press – Namibia. THE Namibia Sports Commission (NSC) has roped in the Namibian Institute of Public Administration and Management (Nipam) to assist with a sport administration course next year.
This is to address the issue of unqualified administrators in the country, which is seen as the Achilles heel of the largely amateur sport industry.
In the not-too-distant future, administrators must at least have a certificate in sport management in order to serve as an executive on a sport body, NSC chief administrator Freddy Mwiya told Desert Radio this week.
“Why we care with this programme is because at the 2019 Sport Indaba held in Lesotho, the council of ministers (Anoca), the Olympic Committee in Africa, and Cosano all agreed to capacitate administrators,” he said.
The NSC and Nipam have agreed to run a sport administration curriculum accredited and designed for the capacity building of administrators, he said.
For the over 50 sport codes on its register to take the desired direction, the commission has decided to step up and capacitate sport administrators from 2023, Mwiya said.
“The programme will run for three to six months. I urge all sport administrators to make use of the opportunity and be part of this programme next year.”
ATHLETES
Mwiya said Namibian athletes no longer need to travel to Durban, South Africa, for specialised training, following an agreement between the NSC and the MTC Dome at Swakopmund.
At the moment, The Dome is funding six elite athletes at its high-performance programme.
“With the 2023 All Africa Games and World Championships Team Namibia will make use of the services at the MTC Dome in preparing for the continental and world championships,” the NSC head of admin said.
He said Namibia has the expertise to transform and professionalise the sport sector.
“There is no need for us to send athletes to Durban and Ghana for training purposes. Namibia has the expertise to assist our athletes. Why can’t we utilise them?”
Furthermore, the chief administrator said a national sport indaba is slated for 2023 as the matter was discussed with the line ministry and stakeholders.
“It’s the right time to kick-start the implementation process of what has been discussed at the recently concluded sport expo held at Swakopmund,” Mwiya said.
The 2022 Sport Expo held at the MTC Dome delivered the desired results, he said.
“I was obviously impressed with the sport conference which dealt with issues such as sport nutrition, athletes’ financial support, and the professionalisation of the sport sector.
“The conference also looked at synergy and networking among the sport federations going forward,” Mwiya said.
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