The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Abuja branch, has again emerged champions of CBN Governor’s Cup.
The Abuja branch defeated arch rivals Lagos branch 3-1 to win the 42nd edition of the cup and for the 7th time in a match played at the Ilorin township stadium.
The Abuja team which came from behind to beat arch rival also produced the most valuable player of the tournament, Hassan Hassan and the highest goal scorer in Aliu Bello with 15 goals.
Bauchi branch won the bronze after defeating Ilọrin 3-2 in the third place match played on Friday.
The fair play award was won by the Ilọrin branch through Godwin Olusegun Adeoye.
Since the competition started in 1981, Abuja has won it in 1998, 1999, 2001, 2008, 2009, 2022 and 2023.
The Lagos branch which also lost last year’s final to the Abuja has won it a record 10th time.
This year’s finals was also preceded by an all female novelty football match.
In his address at the event, CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso said the competition which involved all the branches and the head office, kicked off in eight centers – Akure, Ilorin, Abakaliki, Kano, Kaduna, Gombe, Enugu and Makurdi – with the preliminaries played between July 10 to August 17, 2023.
Cardoso, who was represented by the jead, Employee Relations and Welfare Division of the Human Resources Department, Mrs Brenda Daurang, said the competition was aimed at encouraging social relationships between staff and maintaining a healthy workforce through sporting activities.
Winners of the finals received a trophy, gold medals and a cash prize of N2 million.
The second and third place team went home with silver and bronze medals as well as N1.5 million and N1 million respectively. The 4th place team received the sum of N500,000.
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