By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –
A LEADING global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, Huawei Technologies Zambia yesterday announced a one-year kit sponsorship deal for MTN Premiership side, ‘The Elite’ Lusaka Dynamos worth US$ 29, 000 (about K211,700).

•HUAWEI Technologies Zambia director public relations, Hansen He (second left) exchange sponsorship deal documents with Lusaka Dynamos vice-chairperson Madalitso Kamanga at Chrismar Hotel in Lusaka yesterday. Picture by SHAMAOMA MUSONDA.

Dynamos will join world football giants like Ajax Amsterdam (Holland), Atletico Madrid (Spain), PSG (France), Arsenal (England), AC Milan (Italy), Borussia Dortmund and Schalke (Germany) as official partners of Huawei.
Speaking at the signing ceremony at Chrismar Hotel in Lusaka, Huawei Technologies Zambia director public relations, Hansen He said his company was pleased to associate itself with sport and especially a community team like Dynamos.
Hansen explained that the sponsorship involved just the kit which would be purchased and have a Huawei logo on it for the whole year and hoped the deal would motivate the players to vie for glory.
“We are a world leading ITC solutions provider and since we are still growing, we thought of coming to Zambia whose economy is flying and also one of Africa’s fastest growing. Then we also see Lusaka Dynamos as a young team that is growing and we hope that this small deal will make us and them (Dynamos) grow together. The kit deal for this year is US$ 29, 000,” he said.
Hansen assured Dynamos that the kit deal was just a start and depending on how well things would go, Huawei will grow the support with the Premiership promotion side next year and eventually reach full sponsorship like what Huawei International was offering to German Bundesliga side Borrusia Dortmund and South Africa’s Ajax Cape town.
Dynamos vice-chairperson Madalitso Kamanga was pleased with the ‘blessing’ his side had received, saying it was a big step in the progression of the community sponsored side.
“After the players got us to the Premier Division after very difficult circumstances where they went without allowances and bonuses, we were left with a task of finding sponsorship and thankfully, from the many companies we approached, Huawei Technologies responded,” Kamanga said.
He said it was through such sponsorship that have kept pushing Dynamos to continue existing and named Kitwe’s Vital Beverages as one firm which had been committed itself to assisting the club with water for all its Copperbelt games.
It is a fairy tale for Dynamos who three years ago were playing in Division Two Northern League where they had to play as far as Mbala but now today are representatives of one of the world’s biggest companies.