…to be unveiled Thursday July 1
FDH Bank Plc has concluded negotiations with the Football Association of Malawi (FAM) on the continued sponsorship of the country’s football team, the Flames.
The details of the new sponsorship deal will be unveiled on Thursday in Blantyre, both FDH and FAM officials have confirmed.
FDH Bank plc Head of Marketing and Communication Levie Nkunika said they will be renewing the contract, which dates back to 2016 when the bank started bankrolling the Flames with an annual sponsorship of K30 million.
“FDH Bank is committed to work together with FAM to realize the full potential of Malawi Football. Our Bank stands for making growth possible for our customers and stakeholders including communities under which football development falls. The Bank supports the vision of FAM to make the Flames Africa’s football powerhouse.”
“The Bank has taken a medium- and long-term view to the development of sports especially football and netball in Malawi as it has been investing not only in the Queens and The Flames but has also introduced national cups for both netball and football – the FDH Bank Cup for football and the FDH Bank Cup for netball. This is in addition to the mayors’ trophies and inter-city Mayors’ trophy for netball and football for primary schools,” said Nkunika.
FAM Secretary General Alfred Gunda also confirmed the new deal saying all the finer details of the ‘new and improved sponsorship’ will be unveiled on Thursday.
“It is true that we have been having talks for a possibility of reviewing the sponsorship of the Flames and we will be announcing the new deal with big improvements on Thursday. We would like to commend FDH Bank for always standing with us,” said Gunda.
FDH Bank started sponsoring the Flames in 2016 with K30 million annually when all sponsors had deserted the team as most of them sought immediate returns.
The Bank raised the sponsorship by doubling it to K 60 million in 2019. Currently FDH pumps K60 million (K180 million for 3 years) for the Flames annually and K360 million annually for the FAM FDH Bank Football Cup being the most lucrative football cup in Malawi with the winning team taking home K25 million as prize money.
From the month of April, every Friday FDH Group staff members don Flames Jerseys in what is called ‘FDH Flames Friday’ as a symbol of national pride and celebrating the Flames AFCON qualification.
As part of celebrating the Flames AFCON qualification and promoting a savings culture among the customers, FDH Bank is running a savings promotion campaign called ‘Wamkaka Promotion’ with prizes that include Flames Replica Jerseys monthly and a grand prize of K5 million that will close in August 2021.
Following the Flames victory over Uganda and qualification for AFCON 2022, FDH Bank plc spoiled the Flames with a K100, 000.00 investment account to 35 squad players translating to K3,500,000.00.
“The Bank has taken interest to support the Flames players to build and develop sustainable livelihoods post their careers by conducting savings and investment training to the squad members and this has not been done in Malawi before,” said Nkunika.
FDH Bank is a home-grown bank with the widest branch network of 51 service centres in Malawi and is a subsidiary of a fast-growing diversified financial group, FDH Financial Holdings Limited that includes FDH Money Bureau and the First Discount House among others.
