Nigerians are sports loving people. One sport that has united Nigerians and sold our image to the world is football. But sports has been poorly managed in Nigeria, either due to the lack of creative ideas or bad management skills of people elected to positions of authority in sports organisations in Nigeria.
These are the reasons why we have failed as a nation to turn sports into money spinning business that can provide solutions to one of the major challenges facing the country: unemployment. Why have the various levels of government failed to privatise this unifying sector so that those who have business ideas can transform the sector and provide jobs for our teeming unemployed youths.
It is against this backdrop that we commend the federal government for reclassifying sports as business, and not mere recreation, to birth the vision of the National Sports Industry Policy (NSIP) in ensuring that sports play a prominent role as an instrument of national unity and cohesion; in promoting health and fitness through mass participation, and contributing to economic development and earning Nigeria and the sportsmen global recognition.
The NSIP, recently approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), outlines an effective means of improving the funding of sports, delineating the obligations of the different tiers of government, the participation of the private sector and other stakeholders in sports. The approval brings to an end the efforts of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to get a policy document in place for the administration of sports in the country.
Some of the approved incentives as outlined in the policy document include: tax exemption and rebate for a period of five years for investors in the value chain of sports; land provision and waiver for certain fees on lands meant for sports; single digit loan interest rates for corporate organisations and private individuals investing in the sports value chain; independent government grant through the establishment of an Independent Athletes Welfare Fund (AWF) from which athletes representing the country can draw support for education and training; application of the Renovate Operate Transfer (ROT), Build Operate and Transfer (BOT), Integrated National Financial Framework (INFF), Nigeria Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) or any other innovative public-private partnership financing model for the provision, rehabilitation of sports facilities in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and full operationalisation and enforcement of the Sports Code of Governance.
The NSIP seeks to address the lingering problems of adequate and sustainable funding of National Sports Federation (NSF) which is, of course, a key driver of the objectives of the policy draft. Furthermore, the commitment to a synergy between ICT/digital technology and sports will be instrumental to improving existing sporting standards, especially in two crucial areas that have tainted the sporting integrity of the Nigerian state over time - doping and football age eligibility factors. Moreover, the absence of a sports-specific legal framework for the protection of commercial and intellectual property rights has given rise to the proliferation of counterfeiting and trademark infringement.
The NSIP goes ahead to specifically highlight a considerable number of roles for each tier of government and the private sector, as well as policy recommendations, action points and recommendations. Interestingly, one of the recommendations include the amendment of the 1999 Constitution to specifically include sports as a subject matter deserving of legislative competence across all tiers of government, and the update of tax legislations to give effect to proposed tax reliefs and incentives for sports stakeholders and participants.
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In the opinion of this newspaper, the NSIP represents the boldest and most significant statement of intent from major stakeholders in the sports industry to take sports to the next level by forging a much-needed recreational, cultural (social) and economic reputation for the sector.
What is more, our youths can be encouraged to form sports clubs or teams. They can either form a team in one particular discipline or form teams in other disciplines and form a club and turn such into a lucrative business where sponsorships and promotion of sporting activities and products can thrive. Sports packaging and promotions companies can organise competitions that will engage youths.
We, therefore, call on the federal government to ensure that the NSIP is implemented to the letter and does not suffer the fate of similar past policy documents in the country.
