The President of the Uganda Boxing Federation Moses Muhangi, has expressed deep disappointment with the government’s allocation of what he terms as little funds for the boxing sector for the 2024/25 financial year.
Muhangi said this during an interview with NBS Sport, stating that the limited funds would severely hinder the development of the sport in the country.
The comments come even though the newly announced national budget for this financial year will see the sports sector, under the Ministry of Education and Sports, receive its best-ever funding allocation.
The Boxing Federation chief is not happy with the fact that the majority of these increased resources will be directed towards the football sector, including the construction of new stadiums like the Hoima Stadium, while the boxing discipline continues to be neglected.
“It’s very sad that our boxing budget stayed at over 300 million for this financial year. It contributes to weakening the sport because as boxing, our plans can’t move forward with the little funding,” Muhangi candidly stated.
He pointed out the stark contrast in funding, with football receiving a staggering 17 billion shillings, while boxing is allocated a mere 320 million shillings in the same budget year.
“Which criteria do they use to allocate only 320 million to Boxing, yet they give shs 17 billion to football in the same financial year and you want us to compete together? That’s not being fair,” Muhangi questioned.
Muhangi expressed concern that the lack of adequate funding has directly contributed to Uganda’s failure to qualify any boxers for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
He stated that without proper resources for training, coaching, and exposure, the sport’s development has been severely hindered.
“It’s very bad that we didn’t qualify any boxer to go for the Olympics this year. It is because of very many problems. One of them is money. When you don’t have money, you can’t train very well, get nice coaches and you can’t get good exposure games,” the federation president lamented.
Despite the challenges, Muhangi remained hopeful, stating that the boxing sector will continue to engage with the relevant authorities to secure more funding and ensure better representation in future Olympic cycles.
“The good thing is that the president sent the budget back to parliament, so we’re going to engage members of parliament and lobby for more money. But even though they don’t, we shall keep moving forward,” Muhangi concluded.
