Monday, 5 February 2024, marked a milestone for the National Olympic Committee of Zambia, which received from the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) a state-of-the-art “multi-purpose floor mat” to give the multi-purpose hall at the Olympic Youth Development Centre, OYDC Zambia a facelift.
This is one of the windfalls of a sponsorship agreement signed between ANOCA and GERFLOR, a leading world-renowned flooring company.
The major donation is in line with the OYDC 2023 – 2028 strategic plan, which focuses on investing in facilities to support elite sport in this southern African country of nearly 20 million people.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Fredrick CHITANGALA, Executive Director of OYDC Zambia, said:
“We are happy that, today, the long-awaited donation from ANOCA arrived at OYDC. This is the floor mat that is made to be used in our multi-purpose hall. It consists of 35 pieces of mats and we hope that in the next 30 days we will be able to have it fitted in the main hall. This floor is long-awaited… You know that our 2023-2028 strategic plan focuses much on facility maintenance…”
OYDC is collaborating with the government, through the Ministry of Youth, Sport and the Arts, as part of the five-year strategic plan, in order to obtain support and be able to facelift certain facilities such as the boxing hall, the athletics track and certain outdoor courts.
For his part, the Secretary General of NOC-Z, Boniface KAMBIKAMBI asserted:
“… OYDC is earmarked to be a high-performance centre. Equipment like this will enhance the facility… We have been looking forward to this so that we can give opportunities to our elite athletes to utilize some of the facilities that they find at international centres….I have had a look at the quality of the material. It has a wooden finish which is good.”
For Mustapha BERRAF, President of ANOCA, “The African Olympic and Sports Movement is quite pleased to be able to promote such a breakthrough in the modernisation of sports facilities for the benefit of Africa’s sporting youth. ANOCA will continue to live up to its commitments for the benefit of all stakeholders of the African Olympic and sports movement. This project to upgrade facilities is designed to support high-level sports disciplines.”
OYCD Zambia had earlier announced that it would be renovating some of its “worn out” facilities with ANOCA’s support.
