Many Eastern Cape people hopeful for grant funding from the National Lotteries Commission (NLC) on Friday heard that they failed to secure it because they did not comply with the commission’s requirements.
The chair for the commission, professor Alfred Nevhutanda, told scores of grant hopefuls at the NLC’s Eastern Cape post indaba engagement session at the Regent Hotel in East London that the province was among the worst applicants in the country.
He said non-compliant applications included late submissions of the necessary documents and incorrect annual financial statements. Some applications did not include documents that were stated on the application forms, while for some, a failure to clearly state the required dissolution clause led to their applications being rejected.
“We are sitting with many problems from this province. People use one plan to apply for all funding. NLC is a first-comefirst-serve,” he said.
Nevhutanda urged grant apand plicants to follow the commission’s rigid application process and be creative with their applications.
The engagement session was intended to allow NLC stakeholders a chance to interact with grant beneficiaries and hopefuls share information about grant funding and the regulation of lotteries.
NLC chief operations officer Phillemon Letwaba said grant applicants no longer had to wait years before applying, and could qualify months after opening their non-profit organisations.
“The application process has been simplified to allow newly formed NGO’s to qualify for funding.”
Letwaba said grant funding was divided into small, medium and large grants categories. For small grants of R500,000 or less, applicants only need to prove that they were registered and show their banking details. Medium and large grants have more strict requirements.
“We’ve tried to make sure that nobody is locked outside the NLC grant, but applications must be aligned with the priority areas of the NLC,” he said...