Darling Uganda Partners with Netball Federation to Dress Umpires

By Emma Amooti

Pearl Byanjeru, PRO Darling Uganda in group picture with Netball umpires

Since the Uganda netball federation president Hon Sarah Babirye was elected to lead the sporting body her main cry is seeing that she gets sponsors to dress the netball league umpires.
They is a saying when you keep on praying, definitely your prayers are answered and yesterday was another big achievement in the sport of netball in Uganda no matter so many negative forces are very busy fighting hard to see that Babirye Kityo Sarah is out of Uganda Netball Federation office even before the end of her tenure, She has kept on proving to them that she came to serve and promote the image of the sport and by doing so, she has knocked them down.
Since she took over the leadership of netball leadership, her vision was to see that she commercialize the sport and to do that you must have a marketing department which has made sure it does not fail her, thanks to the Marketing manager department headed by , Daniel Ntale Kisseka who has worked around the clock to see that he brings on Darling on board to dress the umpires before the league throws off on November 4th 2023 at Kamwokya.
The deal unveiled yesterday at the netball federation offices is worth UGX 30 million shillings and will see Darling dressing all the 35 umpires who will be officiating the three Uganda Netball Federation leagues. The partnership saw Darling giving the league 200 seats that will be used on three playing grounds present at the unveiling was the company PRO, Pearl Byanjeru.

“I am very pleased to work with the governing body of netball, and proud to be here to unveil our partnership with them,” said Byanjeru.
“When UNF Marketing department head Daniel Ntale approached us at Darling, we didn’t just think of all the marketing terms or the marketing benefits that the league will bring to us, we were given opportunity to fulfill one of our mission statements and that is to empower the girl child to be the best version of themselves. So we are here together with the league to actually to empower the girl child, we are here to nurture their talent in netball, We’re really glad that Daniel brought this on board, true it was on short notice and we were able and get what we could for the team but am sure in future we will do better” she added.
Ntale, who has brought a number of companies on board in the space of two years, requested people of netball to front positive about the sport more than the negativity.
“Darling is a company that is operating in over 18 countries in Africa, that’s how big the brand is.
One thing am requesting from the netball community that in brands, there is a lot of challenges but how can we protect our brand as netball because merging netball with darling that means whatever negative comes out of netball it will affect Darling as well, companies out there who would love to work with netball, they need to hear only positives, so one of the main issues why we are here is to unveil Darling but what’s to get back from what is giving to netball, visibility, positivity and improve on their sales as well. Darling is here to stay, they just want to see how we respond. There are many companies that we started with like we started today with Darling and now they are giving better offers to Netball. My request, let’s be positive.” Said Ntale.
On the umpires side, Rosette Namuli Mutyaba the umpires director, thanked the Marketing department for bringing Darling on board and promised as umpires, they will promote Darling to all the five regions of Netball in Uganda.
“I take this opportunity to thank the marketing department because without the marketing department, Darling wouldn’t be here for us, we thank you so much Mr. Ntale for marketing the game of netball and thank Darling for coming on board.
“Umpiring doesn’t stop in Kampala, we go beyond Kampala, we have a number of umpires in the country, but the league has 35, but we’re going to take Darling in all the five regions.” said.
Meanwhile, This is the first time in the history of Uganda netball the umpires in the league have got sponsorship.
The 2023-2024 season of Uganda Netball Women Super League was also launched yesterday and will throw off on November 4th 2023 at Kamwokya.