Malawi suspends indoor sports complex project

Malawi government has suspended the construction of the new National Indoor Sports Complex in the 2012/13 financial year.

The revelation was made after it was noted that there is no allocation for the project in this year’s national budget.

However, Malawi’s Youth and Sports Minister Enoch Chihana said government is still willing to see the project take off. He said it could not have been possible this year considering that the budget is focusing more on economic recovery than development projects.

“This is an austerity budget as government is trying to revamp the economy; hence, we did not allocate any money towards construction of the indoor sports complex. The political will is there, but the economic environment is not suitable,” said Chihana.

He said government will allocate funding towards the project in next year’s budget.

“We will proceed with the construction of the project when the economy will be on track,” said Chihana.

Government allocated K50 million (about $200 000) towards the project in the previous two budgets.

Construction of the sports complex and the football stadium were among the major pledges of the late president Bingu wa Mutharika at the start of his second term.

In this year’s budget, government has also not planned for the rehabilitation of Kamuzu Stadium, which received K260 million (about $1.04m) in the previous two financial years.