The Table Tennis Federation (RTTF) has approved a Rwf 40 million budget to be spent for its activities during the 2022 season. The budget was approved during the federation’s 2022 action plan meeting held on Sunday evening. It is, however, still too small to finance all initiatives in line towards the development of Table Tennis in the country as RTTF president Jean Bosco Birungi pleaded. “It [the budget] is not that big to sustain all Table Tennis activities but we hope it will serve the best for the development of the game during the remaining period of this season,” Birungi explained. According to Birungi, part of the budget are contributions of the federation’s members but the biggest part worth Rwf 35 million will be contributed by the federations partners. The Chinese and French Embassies in Rwanda are among potential and regular partners to the development of Table Tennis in Rwanda and Birungi is confident that both embassies will support the federation to sustain the budget. The budget will be spent on the Table Tennis activities of the 2022 season, mainly tournaments, development initiatives in the Table Tennis community as well as purchasing new equipment for the game. “Equipment is so expensive but, now that we’ve managed to find people who can make tables locally, we hope to use some resources to order some paddles and balls from outside the country as we continue to seek sponsorship on equipment,” Birungi said. The meeting also concluded with the elections that saw Innocent Bahati elected new vice-president of the federation, replacing Frere Maurice Burasa who moved to Lebanon where he assumed new responsibilities. Bahati, a former journalist, returns to office as RTTF vice-president, having previously served the federation as Secretary General last year before he resigned from the position due what he called ‘personal reasons’.
