The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Thursday in Abuja that it would give the Super Eagles the necessary support to become world-beater.
Ugochukwu Okoroafor, the Director, Corporate Communications Department of the bank, gave the assurance, while announcing the bank’s contribution to sports development in the country at the secretariat of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA).
He said the drop in the performance of the Super Eagles called for concern and as such, should not be left to sports people alone to handle.
“Just as they say politics is too serious to be left for politicians alone, so is sports too serious to be left to sports people alone. Everybody should get involved and that is why we are here.
“In soccer, we used to be number four in the world and for us not to be even fourth in Africa means we have to find out what the structural challenges are.
“We are no longer a strong force in athletics and can’t compare with Jamaica and you know Jamaica can’t match Nigeria in terms of size and population.
“Most of the people running for Jamaica came from Nigeria. So, we have it and we used it in the days of Chidi Imo, Falilat Ogunkoya and others,” Okoroafor said.
He said the support to the Eagles and football in general was a replica of what the CBN had done to golf and tennis that have produced talents for the country.
The banker further said that the CBN had plans to also support the Beach Soccer Competition scheduled to take place at Jabi, Abuja, in November.
“We have our core mandate and what we do is in the context of corporate social responsibility.
“What we are doing is to help develop the society, so that we can have a stable economy, bearing in mind that we have our core mandate which is printing of currency.’
