Enugu State governor, Dr Peter Mbah, said plans are underway to hold the state sports festival in 2024 as part of the programmes to reposition sports in the state and also prepare Team Enugu for the 22nd National Sports Festival slated for Ogun State next year.
Governor Mbah, who rue the declining state of sports development in Enugu State, said his administration had designed a state sports policy, which sees sports beyond recreation and entertainment, but as a huge business and investment platform.
He also revealed that the state would host a sports summit in 2024 to harness its investment potentials in sports.
He stated this when he received the sports development minister, Senator John Enoh, who was on a working visit to the state during the weekend.
“We have designed a comprehensive policy document on sports. Just like the federal government, we see sports as a revenue generation sector. And that is essentially how we have designed a lot of our policies around sports,” Mba said.
“Sometime next year, we will be hosting a sports summit where we will be showcasing the investment opportunities that we have in our sports sector; and we are going to be extending our invitation to you and other sports sector stakeholders and investors.
“Enugu has always been a home to sports legends in all fields, not just football. It also has a history, reputation, and passion for sports. So, we want to bring Enugu back to that past glory as a city and a state for sports legends. We have raw and unharnessed talents, which we want to groom to become world talents.”
“We have initiated a couple of programmes. Next year, we are going to have our own Enugu State Sports Festival; and the idea is for us to raise that awareness that we can actually build these talents and groom them to become future legends.
Earlier, the minister of sports development, Senator Enoh, lauded Mbah’s initiatives in sports development, saying the federal government is eager to partner with Enugu in grassroots sports development.
“The Federal Ministry of Sports Development has fixed a number of offices across the country. Enugu is the headquarters of one of these zonal offices and each of these zonal offices has a zonal coordinator and other members of the Ministry because our goal is to give attention to grassroot sports development.
“We can’t achieve anything meaningful in terms of sports development without the grassroots of sports. So, my mission in Enugu today is to inspect the zonal office, meet with the coordinator and other staff, and use this opportunity to introduce our zonal coordinator here in Enugu”, Senator Enoh explained.
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