27 Apr 2023

Sankoyo Bush Bucks have announced a three-year sponsorship deal with Wilderness Safari, one of Africa’s largest and best known safari brands.

Through the P700 000 sponsorship, the club will seek to return to the premier league.

The Maun-based outfit is also expected to traverse Ngamiland District and identify raw talent and and develop it.

Sankoyo Bush Bucks chairperson, Itumeleng Kelebetseng, said this during a press conference on Wednesday, adding the sponsorship was a welcome development as the club had been struggling financially.

The funding, he said, would help the club to prepare and start the next season vigorously to accomplish the mission of returning to the elite league.

Although the assistance was not adequate to sustain the club as they needed P1.6 million on annual basis, Mr Kelebetseng expressed happiness that the safari company had promised to engage its partners to aid the ailing club.

“We really appreciate Wilderness assistance as it will help us push our agenda.  I also give credit to Sankoyo Tshwaragano Development Trust for playing a key role towards forging this partnership with the safari company on our behalf,” he said.

For years, Kelebetseng noted that the club had been struggling to secure sponsors noting that they relied much on the assistance from the trust, which also had a close working relationship with Wilderness Safaris.

He called on the Ngamiland community as well as private sector to come forth and support the club so that it could return to its glory days citing that while in premier league, it attracted a lot of attention and brought business to Maun.

Currently, the team is playing in the Debswana First Division North and sitting in position eight.

Furthermore, Kelebetseng said they had approached Botswana Football Association (BFA) requesting T-shirt branding manual to guide them as they were expecting more sponsors to rescue the club.

Wilderness Safaris managing director, Kim Nixon said they wanted the team to be elevated to premier league, maintain the status and bring happiness and excitement to the Ngamiland community.

Since they had been operating in Botswana in rural areas for years, he said they had seen a lot of unearthed talent which needed to be nurtured and developed in line with the company’s goal of educatong, empowering and protecting.

He described the sponsorship as an empowerment drive as they wanted to see it achieving the goal of helping and uplifting the livelihoods of youth in communities not only in soccer, but in other talents as well.

Nixon further said the sponsorship had a number of layers citing that they wanted to see Sankoyo players participating in the company’s programme dubbed ‘Children in the Wilderness’ aimed at facilitating sustainable conservation through leadership development and education of children in Africa.

The company, he said, also had a Botswana Qualification Authority training unit which had trained people for more than 20 years in Botswana.

Nixion said through the unit, members of the team would be offered free training in certain programs to open opportunities in the hospitality sector and the tourism industry at large.

“We are coming as the main sponsor and want to see Bush Bucks back in the premier league and emerging as champions.

We are committed to do more and bring more partnerships to ensure the team is elevated in the premier league,” he added.

Meanwhile, Wilderness was established 27 years ago and operates camps and safari in Botswana, Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Seychelles.

Nixion said the company has grown in Botswana as it had owned camps in the Okavango Delta and Chobe enclave. ENDS