Worried by the hiccups in the country’s sports development as a result of poor funding, Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, has taken the funding campaign to the private sector. In this piece, SEGUN OGUNJIMI reports that the response has been encouraging.

The Year 2020 is an Olympic year where sports loving Nigerians expect the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to pleasantly surprise them with medals at the world biggest sports fiesta.

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare resumed office August 21, 2019 to take over from former Sports Minister Solomon Dalung who was in charge of ‘Team Nigeria’ that performed poorly at the last edition of the Olympic Games held in Rio, Brazil.

The onerous task now lies on the Sunday Dare to ensure that Nigeria achieves success in this year’s Games holding in Tokyo, Japan. The Minister, since assumption of office, has left no stone unturned to ensure he gets enough funds and sponsorships for the 11 sporting events that the Ministry has picked for the Olympics.

About 11 sport events for the Olympic and five for the Paralympic have been prioritised for the qualifying pathway: Athletics, Rowing, Para Athletics, Badminton, Table Tennis, Para Canoeing, Basketball, Taekwondo, Para Powerlifting, Boxing, Weightlifting, Para Rowing, Canoeing, Wrestling, Para Table Tennis and Gymnastics. The final list of qualified athletes and sports would be confirmed after the completion of the two-year qualification tournaments cycle in June 2020.

In order to achieve maximum success at the 2020 Olympics, the Minister has turned to the private sector for rescue and he has been getting favourable responses for the campaign.

On Monday December 16, 2019, the Minister stormed Lagos to launch what he tagged ‘Adoption Campaign’, which took place at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. The initiative is part of the plans to raise funds for athletes who will be representing the country in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games According to the Minister, the primary target was to give the Olympians a better preparation ahead of the games.

According to the Minister, the Adoption Campaign has three components, namely (1) Adopt a football pitch, ((2) Adopt a sports centre e.g. basketball court, swimming pools etc, and (3) adopt an athlete. The Minister also disclosed that business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has promised to repair the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja, while Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state has promised to pick 75 percent of the cost for the renovation of the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna. Also, Chief Kensington Adebutu, the billionaire businessman who owns the multi-million Naira betting outfit – Premier Lotto has agreed to help renovate The National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

The visibly elated Minister also spoke of another ground breaking effort of his Ministry since he resumed office in August 2019. The Minister has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on behalf of the Ministry, with the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), with a view to bridging the funding gap that has continued to hamper sports development in the country.

Speaking at the signing of the MoU in Lagos on Tuesday, December 17, 2019 the Minister said that the reality of government’s dwindling resources has presented the opportunity for private sector participation and ownership of  business ventures associated with sports.

The Minister said, “It is an opportunity that is demanding attention in the face of shrinking resources. It demands a review of the current situation where government views and treats sports as a social service when in reality it is a multi-billion-naira industry.”

Speaking on the NESG, he said, “The NESG is an important stakeholder in the economic development of Nigeria. It has always been providing strategic inputs to policy and helping to reshape the thinking in government.

“The NESG has transformed itself into a formidable think-tank that no government should ignore. We are happy to be associated with you. Your unique insight in identifying sports development in Nigeria as a major problem that requires business models as solution, has played a key and defining role in bringing us to this epoch-making point in our sports development history.”

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Mr Dare added that the Inter-Ministerial Technical Session on Sports Industry Development noted that a private sector driven sports industry would ensure the commitment to the required investment to deliver on the potentials of the sports industry to add value to the Nigerian economy, whilst also assisting the government in its core objectives of social integration, economic empowerment and youth engagement.

The Minister, who has always maintained that sports remained a largely untapped sector, added that one of the challenges has always been how to engage the interest of the private sector from a business point of view while also tapping into the business side to perform a social development function that is geared towards developing the potentials of the youth of the country.

According to him, with over 200 million citizens made of a predominantly young population, sport offers prospects for the Nigerian society to be galvanised. “Sport is the only national endeavour which every Nigerian supports without thought to tribal, ethnic, regional or political sentiments,” he said.

The Minister further stated that the MoU he signed with the NESG was geared toward achieving the establishment of the Nigeria Sports Industry Policy, which will eventually culminate in an Act of the National Assembly that will spell the rules and regulations on the playing field.

Dare also said with the right policies, the sports industry in Nigeria is capable of harnessing the energies and economic power of the youth through engagement in sports.

He said: “We have also tried to change the perception about sports being a recreation or a play thing. We also said that sport is a decent field of endeavour. We have tried to change that narrative. We have also leveraged on refocusing youth development, almost on even par with sports development.

“We have launched a number of youth development programmes. Most of them will take off actively by late January 2020. So we have come to a place where youth development and sports development are cardinal objectives and we are pursuing them with very limited resources but leveraging on public-private partnership.”