FG pledges to invest in grassroots sports

The Federal government yesterday pledged its continued support for the development of grassroots sports in the country.
The vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo who made the pledge while unveiling and distributing sports equipments worth over N575m to 200 selected schools in the coun­try, noted that the future of Nigerian sports only lies at the grassroots.
The equipments were procured by the National Lottery Trust Fund, (NLTF) as part of its contribution to the development of grassroots sports at the primary schools level.

 Speaking while unveiling the equipments at the Shehu Yar’Adua centre in Abuja, the vice president, who was represented by the minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, noted that sports at the grassroots ;level is the end to the country’s woes in international sports, adding that the federal government would continue to promote grassroots sports.
He congratulated the management of NLTF for using its resources to develop sports in the country.
Earlier in his remarks, the Executive Sec­retary of NLTF, Engr. Habu Gumel noted that the essence of the intervention was to promote the development of grassroots sports in the country, with the specific ob­jectives of enhancing the grow and expand the nation through sports.
Gumel expressed the Funds apprecia­tion of the gratitude of the federal govern­ment for granting it the approval to exercise its statutory mandate under the National Lottery Act 2015, which he noted enabled it to fund the procurement of the sports equipments.
He disclosed that the equipments were for 9 selected sports, which in­clude Football, Tae­kwondo, Volleyball, Basketball, Table Tennis, Handball, Badminton, Judo and Athletics.