The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development has reiterated its commitment to develop the sports industry in the country beyond football.
This was made known by the minister, Sunday Dare during a facility tour of the ongoing rehabilitation at the National Stadium, Surulere recently.
According to him, the ministry is keen to develop other sports where Nigeria has comparative advantage.
“We have seen that football has been able to birth and support other sports. Our focus is beyond football. Yes, we pay attention to football, but we want to develop other sports such as badminton, tennis, boxing, and wrestling.
“We have in a deliberate way moved resources and the latest which is really exciting is cricket. The newly appointed coach for cricket is one of the best in the world. Three days ago, the International Cricket Federation approved Nigeria to host two major tournaments. This is unprecedented and we think wherever we have talents we are going to support such sports to grow.
“Our basketball teams are really doing well, and more sponsors are gradually coming to identify with our Basketball teams apart from Total owing to the fact that both the female and male teams are going well,” he said.
In the same vein, the minister expressed his hope that the belated 2020/21 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season may finally resume on Sunday, December 27, 2020.
“I can tell you that even though we have taken so long to start, we are about to start, by the 27th of this month, we hope the professional football league will start,” the minister stated.
