The Nigeria Society for Sports Managers (NSSM) rose from a four-day national conference in Ilorin, Kwara State calling on stakeholders in the Nigerian sports sector to develop new evolving financing strategies for sustainability of the country’s sports industry towards general economic benefits for all.
In an eight-point communiqué issued yesterday at the end of the conference held at University of Ilorin with the theme “Leveraging on global dynamics of sports management for optimum sustainability of sports industry in Nigeria”, the sports management body called for a change in the future narratives of sports management in Nigeria.
The sports managers decried what they called little involvement of private and public investment to refocus the management of Nigeria’s sports, saying stakeholders in the sector had yet to fully embrace sports as business enterprise.
After weighing the prevailing situation in the sports sector, the managers recommended the revival of regular intercollegiate sports competition among tertiary institutions for talent identification and maximisation of potential.
They posited that the global dynamics in sports management should reflect competent qualified technocrats to manage sports, in addition to effective sports management system for talent identification and development through systematic school-based intra-mural programmes.
The managers also urged supportive public/private sector initiatives in all facets of sports management, while emphasising that the new dimension to sports marketing approach should be developed to enhance sports development and effective sports management.
Meanwhile, President of the NSSM, Prof. Muhammed Baba Gambari, has said that the national conference would serve its purpose of contributing meaningfully to sports management in Nigeria over the years.
“We are proud of our roles as academics and we hope to continue to contribute our quota in the years ahead,” Gambari, who is of the Department of Physical and Health Education at Bayero University, Kano said.