The course was aimed at sports administrators across the country, and staged with the support of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Olympic Solidarity funding programme.

It is the sixth edition of the course, and set to run for six months.

MOC President Jappie Mhango explained the goals of the course to improve the level of sports management in Malawi.

"The way the course is designed it is intended to provide all sorts of skills to the administrators, as it consist of six modules; organising an Olympic sport organisation, managing strategically, managing human resources, managing finance, managing marketing, organising a major sport event and if you have got all these modules crafted together, they will help in moulding accomplished sports administrator who will be able to lead by example," he said.

One of the programme's directors Michael Sepula insisted "the time has come to professionalise" sport in the country.

"Once upon a time we used to do things haphazardly without following any procedures as far as sports is concerned," he added.

"And therefore, this training programme is very crucial to ensuring that we bring all the people that are responsible for running the affairs of sports."

The MOC was recognised by the IOC in 1968, debuting at Munich 1972 but then missing Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980 due to boycotts.

It returned at Los Angeles 1984, but is still awaiting its first medal at the Games.