NESG Applauds Fedral Govt On New National Sports Industry Policy

Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has applauded the federal government for approving the new National Sports Industry Policy (NSIP) for development of the sports sector.

“We thank the federal government for reclassifying sports as business to birth the vision of the National Sports Industry Policy in ensuring that sports plays a prominent role in the Nigerian economy while also serving as a platform to achieve social and community development,” the think-tank said in a statement yesterday.

The Federal Executive Council on November 2, 2022 approved the new National Sports Industry Policy (NSIP). The approval is the culmination of years of positive engagement between the private sector, led by the NESG and the public sector, led by the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, to ensure the transformation of sports from recreation to business.

The minister of youth and sports development, Mr. Sunday Dare, in conjunction with the NESG, had inaugurated the sports industry working group and its steering committee with a mandate to address cross-cutting, cross-sectoral cooperation issues in the sports sector and midwife the repositioning of sports through a robust National Sports Industry Policy, focused legislation to drive the implementation of the policy, and targeted and constant initiatives, incentives, investments and interventions to support the implementation of a national policy to deliver on the potential and growth of sports as an economic contributor.

NESG said with the approval of the sports policy, the thrust areas to note include federations and athletes’ development, education, health, capacity development and training, Inclusivity and social development in the community, provision of facilities and infrastructure, economic development, legislative environment and international relations, funding, finance and investment and sports and the digital economy.

Recently, the federal government reclassified sports as a business and not mere recreation to birth the vision of the National Sports Industry Policy in ensuring that sport plays a prominent role as an instrument of national unity, cohesion, promoting health and fitness through mass participation and contributing to economic development and global recognition.

In response to that, Sport Nigeria LTD/GTE was created by the private sector in 2021 as an initiative to aggregate, facilitate and enable the requisite private and social enterprise sectors investments into the sports industry and aid the achievement of the objective of a vibrant, sustainable sports industry across the entire sports value chain, according to the outline of the sports industry policy.