By Carolyne Mugana,

The Sponsorship trend in terms of sports in Kenya has registered positive growth in the last 7 yrs across all
categories. Reported deals captured by Sponsorships Kenya totaled Ksh 1.5 billion for the last 4 yrs. This
is a positive outlook in an industry that has continued to show tremendous growth both locally and globally.

Under the three categories which include sports, cause marketing,drama,music etc, sponsorships, sports received the highest allocation of 63% which translates to Ksh 998 Million, followed by
cause marketing with 34% while the arts, music and culture had 3%.

In sports majority of the reported deals went to five sports disciplines, these includes football, athletics,rugby motor sports and golf all these five disciplines combined received 94% of the total sports sponsorships money i.e. Ksh
999.47 Million.

Of these disciplines football was the biggest recipient with a reported allocation of 467 million shillings. The growth areas in football were in the Kenya premier League through the media partnership between the league and DSTV Supersport, the shirt sponsorship deals of various premier league clubs like Gor Mahia signing a deal with tuzo
worth 30million,Blue triangle with Sofapaka,Brookside sponsoring Thika and Mumias doing the same at Leopards.

There are corporate teams like Karuturi,Sony Sugar,Chemelil Sugar,Posta Rangers,Mumias, Bandari.All these were boosted by the coming inn board of East African Breweries Ltd sponsoring the Kenyan Premier League apart from sponsoring Tusker FC.

The attention being given to youth football or grass root football by companies such as Safaricom’s Sakata tournament and Coca- Cola’s Copa Coca-Cola was also a welcoming boost,though Sakata was abruptly halted by the Federation.

Sakata Ball,a novel concept developed by Safaricom in their attempt to capture the minds of Kenyan youth by
engaging them in participation helped raised the profile of youths and enhanced grassroots soccer thereby producing the likes of Enock Agwanda.

The 2013  tournament resembled the Copa Coca cola tournament but it flopped after the disagreement with FKF.

In athletics the reported deals were mainly from sports goods manufacturer Nike who have a kit endorsement deal with Athletics Kenya and National Olympic committee with a combined worth of approximately Ksh 100 Million.

Other investments in athletics were from the Nairobi Marathon which is sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank other companies like KCB and National bank were heavily involved.

Sector wise the financial (banking) sector spent the highest amount of money in reported deals with a share of 43% or Ksh 0.6 billion while the telecommunications sector reported contribution of Ksh 222 Million or 14% share .

Others sectors which contributed hugely were the Media, Beverages( alcoholic and non alcoholics) and Agro business. “We are beginning to see companies take a lot of interest in sponsorships of events and even though the
sector is still small compared to advertising the level of competition and financial health of Kenyan companies has seen this form Cause related.

EABL’s presence in the sponsorship scene is perhaps the best thing that has happened in the industry for while.EABL is so far sponsoring the national soccer team Harambee stars at a deal worth 110 Million Kenyan shilling together with the Rugby 15’s national team at a reported fee of  of 45 million each year,though the deal expired

Marketing  contributed the lion’s share of any further growth within the industry and this is due to the marked interest the category is currently receiving from companies.”

Other nice and latest sponsorship deals are in the medical cover by insurance companies

Kenyan Premier league giants AFC Leopards through their principal sponsors Mumias Sugar engaged AAR in a deal worth 1.3 Million premium cover to their players and in that the company they offer services like free medical cover and Dental services.

The deal however is not tenable as Mumias voluntarily withdrew from sponsoring the Club.Mathare United sponsored by G4S at one time  added Real İnsurance  which later was taken over by Britam who pledged both in patient and out patient cover to all payers and staff at a deal estimated to be 5M. UAP  offered the same to Harambee stars players

Ulinzi Stars signed a sponsorship deal with  too with UAP insurance to cover for the medical expenses of the players and technical bench.They have Engen as the main sponsors.

Collins Okinyo

Ex- CAF Media Expert. An expert on African football with over 15 years experience ,always with an ear to the ground with indepth knowledge of the game. I have worked for top publications including 7 years at www.supersport.com until i founded www.soka25east.com to quench the thirst of football lovers across the continent. I have trained young upcoming journalists who are now a voice in African football.I have covered World Cup,AFCON,CHAN,Champions League,Confederations Cup,Cecafa,Cosafa,Wafu and many other football tournaments across the World. Founder Football Africa Arena(FAA),Founder www.afrisportdigital.com