The Zambian government has no money to assist National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) to facilitate the beaming of the 2006 Africa Cup to be held in Egypt this month, according to Sunday Post.

The local newspaper quoted Information minister Vernon Mwaanga as saying here on Friday that the government could not afford to pay the huge amount of money being requested for in order to facilitate the live broadcast of the games.

"We realize how important football is to the nation but ZNBC has not money to broadcast the games and we also don't have the money," he said.

"That is why we are joining the call of appealing to the business community to assist just like they have done before to enable ZNBC broadcast these games live."

State-run ZNBC is seeking 3.6 billion kwacha (about one mission US dollars) to facilitate the beaming and has only raised 600 million kwacha (about 176,000 dollars).

Source: Xinhua