Ministry seeks more funding for sports bodies

The Ministry for Youth and Sports hopes to increase funding for national sporting organisations (NSO) next year. 

Minister Jese Saukuru said they also hope to provide relevant resources.

The Ministry for Youth and Sports was allocated $23.4m for the 2025-2026 financial year which was the same allocation for the 2024-2025 financial year. 

“The support that we give our sporting bodies still needed to be improved especially funding,” Saukuru said.

“We have to ask for more funding for our sporting bodies.”

He said while the NSO’s responsibility is to improve their performance, Government’s involvement would be crucial on how they can assist. 

“Hopefully Government will look into how we can increase funding that goes down to sporting bodies for sports development to support all sports in Fiji. 

Saukuru added that the improvements were not solely the role of the ministry. 

“It’s not actually the minister or the ministry. They know their performance, they know what they’ve done last year, where they’re up to,” he said. 

He said that sporting organisations need to build on their past results. 

“For them to improve from there, I think it’s entirely up to them. 

Saukuru confirms that the Fiji National Sports Commission is the channel for funding distribution and the ministry’s responsibility was to ensure sporting bodies have the resources to develop. 

“The reality is that we need to assist them on how they can develop,” he said.

He added while sporting bodies must take charge of their own progress, the ministry would continue to improve its support for sports development across the country.