Taofeek Lawal
The Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare, has commended Afrikings Homes for adopting the Practice Pitch 1 of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja. With the adoption, the company is expected to uplift the standard of the pitch through re-grassing, the building of spectator stands as well as maintaining the pitch for the next two years.
Dare said the Adopt-A-Pitch-Initiative commenced three years ago has restored sports facilities and infrastructure such as the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, the Daura Township Stadium, the National Stadium Surulere, Lagos (under progress) among others. The minister added that the implementation of the Sports Policy is yielding results that the private sector has leveraged. He said the National Development Plan 2021-2025 is based on 70 per cent private sector funding and 30 cent Federal Government funding.
“When about three years ago we started the Adopt-A-Pitch Initiative, it was to rescue our sporting infrastructure and also to improve the welfare of our athletes.
“The first component which we worked on has to do with Adopt-An-Athlete-Initiative by creating a funding pathway for our athletes to prepare for the Olympics and the Commonwealth. We have seen the successes of that initiatives, and we have seen the impact of it. And that is why beginning from next month, we will start that same process towards France in 2024. The Adopt-An-Athlete process will start. We will put forward the athletes that will go both home-based and foreign-based, and then we’ll see what we can do for them.
“Also, we kick-started the Adopt-A-Pitch Initiative which we have seen delivered at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, where we have already seen more than 14 international matches played there. We have seen Surulere coming up. And for Surulere, we just have to be patient to get it right because 19 years of abandoned things have rusted, and things were stolen, to get it right. We have seen Daura Stadium being done. To have someone adopt a pitch here is welcomed and a thing of joy because I know this would be seen by others and serve as an attraction to others to come. We have several football pitches here and our budget is limited.
“We have started implementing the sports as a business policy which means we must leverage private sector participation. The National Development Plan 2021-2025 is based on 70 cents private sector funding and 30 cent Federal Government funding. That is the future of development. We must partner with individuals and corporations and I think the sports sector has keyed into it. We will look forward to what can be done in six to eight weeks and that will be exciting. When it’s done and ready, we will bring two teams to come and play here so that we can get the feel of it and others can see and do likewise,” the minister stated.
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