Fady Younes (centre) with Chanza (left) and Council CEO Lyton Nkata
* The company will invest over K80 million towards the rehabilitation of the facility which is currently in bad condition
* The facility would be made to be one of its kind in the city with a new netball arena, changing rooms and secretariat offices
By Victor Singano Jnr, Correspondent
As one way of strengthening sports in the country and unearth hidden talent among the youths, Premier Bet Malawi has pledged to renovate Zingwangwa Youth Centre in Blantyre and turn the facility into a state-of-the-art netball academy arena.
This was announced on Tuesday during the official signing ceremony of memorandum of understanding (MoU) that Premier Bet Malawi made with Blantyre City Council at Civic Centre Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Fady Younes disclosed that the project is part of their corporate social responsibility and will see the company pumping over K80 million towards the rehabilitation of the facility which is currently in bad condition.
Younes said the company is planning to make the facility to be one of its kind in the city by, among other things, building a new netball arena, changing rooms, offices which will have a full secretariat.
The secretariat staff members will be assigned by Premier Bet Malawi as well as full time coaches, who will be responsible in scouting talented youths and mentor them inorder to allow them realize their netball career dreams.
Younes also said the company is geared to rehabilitate the Youth Centre’s basketball court.
“As you’re aware, this is not our first time to support sporting disciplines in Malawi,” he said. “We have done similar renovation projects across the country like basketball as well as football facilities but this time around we thought it wise to focus on the netball academy as it is one of the sport which has achieved a lot of at international level.
“So this support is part of appreciation as well as develop sport,” said Younes, whose sport betting company has a huge following across the country that have identified many winners in hundreds of millions of kwachas.
In his remarks, director of town planning and estate services at Blantyre City Council, Costly Chanza cherished Premier Bet for the partnership and rehabilitation project, saying the facility will go a long way in helping the youths to strengthen their skills.
Chanza said currently Blantyre City is lacking adequate sporting facilities where young people can be using for trainings, as such once completed, Zingwangwa Youth Centre will bring a significant change in as far as promoting netball is concerned.
“We are privileged that Premier Bet has come to our rescue to rehabilitate the facility which will help in improving netball in the country as we are all aware that netball is on top in terms of performance.
“We are hoping that they will continue helping the Council reaching out to other areas where we don’t have such facilities. We are happy because, apart from the netball arena, they have also pledged to renovate the basketball court at the same facility,” Chanza said.
The project is expected to commence in February and be concluded by December this year.