Botswana Wrestling Federation (BWF) President Moagi Sharp has been selected as a nominee for the Association Leader of the Year Category award in the inaugural Africa Associations Awards.
The awards, which are hosted by the United Kingdom (UK) based organization the Association of Association Executives (AAE) to celebrate African organisations that have had good influence in their countries, will be held on the 30th October 2018 in Pretoria, South Africa.
Vying for the award alongside Sharp will be Kevan Jones of South African Communication Industries Association, Matthew Joseph at Matimbwi of Tanzania Renewable Energy Association and Habil Olaka of Kenya Bankers Association.
Commenting on his nomination, an elated Sharp said he is confident he will walk away with the award given his contribution to the growth and development of Wrestling in Botswana.
“As a founder of BWF I believe I will win the award because of how I struggled with the development of federation and the legacy of sport I made for the country. It is a good thing that AAE was able to recognize a sport association as an excelling organization,” he said.
On how he got nominated, the local wrestling boss said he had submitted his documents to AAE indicating his position in the BWF and his contribution to the growth of the sport in the country.
Aside from his role in Botswana, Sharp is also serving as second vice president of pro wrestling in Africa.
Sharp said as a leader of a ‘small sporting code’ in Botswana, his nomination is a source of pride as small codes are not easily recognized.
“In Botswana I do not get the same recognition as I do internationally as I have never been appointed or nominated in local awards,” he lamented.
He said that it is high time the local sport bodies take into consideration small codes like the BWF because they cannot go far without their support.
He added that the nomination will help to highlight the point that there is potential in other codes and avoid concentrating on the big sport codes.
While the Africa Association Awards will mark the debut of AAE awards in Africa, it will however be the 9th in the series for AAE.
As part of the awards programme, the AAE will run a parallel three day workshop for awards nominees from the 29th to the 31st of October to train them on organisation leadership and management.
