Sports marketing is still proving to be an Achilles' Heel for most National Olympic Committees in Africa who still depend heavily on government funding, The Herald said on Thursday.

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According to the Zimbabwe Olympic Committee chief executive Robert Mutsauki, who attended the seminar, delegates agreed that marketing was still a major challenge for NOCs in Africa "as many of them actually rely on government and Olympic Solidarity funding".

During the seminar, Mutsauki said, presentation on developing public and private funding for major sports events was made by Oladapo and apart from dealing with the general concept of sports marketing, the presentation focused on the opportunities of marketing the newly introduced Anoca Zone Games and the All-Africa Games.

A representative of Anoca Zone Four, which covers eight Central African countries, also narrated the experiences that they went through when they hosted the Anoca Games in Congo Brazzaville last month.

He painted a picture of challenges, ranging from poor communication, unreasonable demands by service providers, unrealistic expectations by team officials to grossly inadequate funding for hosting the Games.

Mutsauki said at the end of the seminar, delegates adopted a motion to support NOCs in crises situation after noting that several NOCs in Africa were currently not enjoying autonomy "enhance were unable to fully exercise their mandate as stipulated in the Olympic Charter".

Mutsauki said that the organisers of the 2007 All-Africa Games in Algeria, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in China and the 2012 London Olympic Games also gave updates on their preparations for hosting these major international events.