NIS Moves To Enrol Coaches In NELFUND

The National Institute for Sports (NIS) is finalising arrangements to enrol its programmes in the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), a move that will allow coaches facing financial difficulties to access loans for professional training, Director-General and Chief Executive Officer Philip Shaibu has said.

Shaibu disclosed this on Wednesday, 16 September 2026, while addressing participants at the ongoing 2026 Confederation of African Football (CAF) A Licence Course in Abuja.

According to him, the initiative is designed to remove financial barriers preventing coaches from obtaining professional qualifications at the NIS.

He said coaches who are unable to pay their tuition fees would be able to access NELFUND loans and repay the funds after securing employment.

“We are enlisting NIS into NELFUND. The implication is that you don’t need to worry about the payment,” Shaibu said.

“When you are not able to pay, we enlist you to NELFUND and they will lend you the money to offset all your school fees. When you get a job, you can start paying back to NELFUND.”

Shaibu also disclosed that NIS research had identified an estimated 40,000 coaches in Nigeria who do not possess professional coaching licences.

He welcomed the return of the CAF A Licence programme to Nigeria after a nine-year hiatus, describing it as an important step towards addressing the shortage of professionally qualified coaches in the country.

The NIS boss said the institute would continue working with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to expand access to professional coaching qualifications and reduce the number of unlicensed coaches.

“I want to congratulate the NFF for bringing back, after nine years, the CAF A Licence programme. For some of us, we’ve been agitating and we have not been happy about it, but it is better late than never,” he said.

Shaibu expressed hope that the NIS-NFF partnership would make the CAF A Licence course a regular programme in Nigeria, providing more coaches with opportunities to obtain the required qualifications.

Earlier, NFF Acting General Secretary Emmanuel Ikpeme commended Shaibu for what he described as his strong commitment to coach development and for initiating closer collaboration between the NIS and the federation.

Ikpeme said the quality of football development depended heavily on the availability of competent coaches.

He also praised Shaibu for what he described as the “reactivation” of the NIS, noting that the institute had facilities and equipment that could support modern coaching programmes.

According to Ikpeme, Shaibu had approached the NFF with a proposal to make the institute’s facilities available for the federation’s coaching programmes, strengthening the partnership between the two organisations.