|
Saturday, 22 November, 2008 01:33 pm
|
You are here:Home
| Fashola urges private sector investment in sports |
|
|
| Thursday, 21 August 2008 | ||||||
     Fashola, who spoke at the Conference Room of his office during the inauguration of the Sports Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), particularly urged the Sector to partner with his administration in the development of sports infrastructure, pointing out that this would yield tremendous returns aside from the benefit to the State. He said his recent visit to Manchester, England was an eye-opener to the vast business opportunities inherent in Sports, pointing out that the Private Sector in the country stand to benefit tremendously as a body aside from the benefits to the country’s economy. “What we experienced in Manchester was not just football event. It was a whole day of activities involving families and tremendous business opportunities, hundreds of thousands of people visiting a sports facility and hundreds of thousands of them employed to provide security, safety, entertainment and also hospitality and merchandizing”, the Governor said. According to the Governor, “What the Partnership should be looking at is how to take advantage of the opportunities that lie in sports. If you build the best sporting facility and can provide safety and security, it is a huge market for advertising, manufacturers, entertainment and merchandizing”. “I have always explained it by saying, Bring people to the arena and you will bring money”, the Governor said, adding that whether it was football, basketball, tennis or swimming, the opportunities that Sports provides transcends every sector of the economy. Governor Fashola, however, said the responsibility of such partnership lay with the Government doing the right thing, adding, “If we do the right things, the Private Sector will respond and I think that infrastructure provision is the first place to start”, Other reasons why he led a delegation to Manchester, the Governor said was to see how they could bring in technical assistance and training both to develop the Lagos Sports Academy and for the imparting of skills and knowledge on young people at very tender age “ so that our youths can compete with people of comparable age elsewhere, having been exposed to international best practices in sports development at very tender age”. The Governor, who said Sports development was one of the pillars of his political campaign, declared, “We are committed to building what we think is a minimum acceptable sporting infrastructure”, adding that the State Government was at the moment developing such sporting facilities across the State. According to the Governor, apart from the model sports infrastructure being constructed at the College of Medicine, which includes a football field, a tennis court and basketball court, all lit up and powered, the Government is also constructing synthetic tuffs across 12 centres in the State including Campos Square in Central Lagos and Agege in Agege Local Government of the State. “We are looking for partnership and branding rights to develop these centres”, Governor Fashola said, adding that such partnerships would be of mutual benefit to both the government and the private sector partners aside from the huge benefit to the society. Pledging the support of the State Government to the NBA Sports initiative, Fashola explained that his administration was seeking to bring people to a destination where they could find attraction and conducive environment for relaxation and other activities. Speaking earlier, Chairman of the NBA committee on Business Law, Mr. George Etomi, said the importance of Sports lay in the fact that it “catches that segment of our society which is critical to our development as a nation – the youth”, adding that a society that properly harnessed its youth would have taken care of its future. “In every society, Sports is a catalyst for harnessing the excess energy of the youth”, the Chairman said adding that the intention of the NBA in inaugurating the Sports and Entertainment Committee was to get the youth back to the various sporting activities that hitherto elevated the lives of youths in the past. Also speaking, the Chairman of the NBA Sports and Entertainment Committee, Professor Epiphany Azinge (SAN), said Public/Private Partnership was the only way out if Nigeria must benefit from the multi-dimensional role of sports in every society. “We need private sector intervention. It is for us to drive this sector knowing that government alone cannot do it”, Professor Azinge said adding that the NBA was also thinking of promoting a bill “after a well thought-out stakeholders’ meeting” aimed at evolving external rules to regulate the activities of those outside the sporting arena such as sports operators, spectators and other stakeholders. Noting that Sports Law had gone beyond matters of arbitration and arbitrary proceedings, Professor Azinge declared, “ The issue of spectator role, control of violence, the control of participants, issue of licensing, merchandising, advertising and broadcasting are critical areas that the law seems to have gone into. We are thinking of criminalizing some of these actions”.  Quote this article on your site | Views: 256 | Print | E-mail
Write Comment
Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.6 |
||||||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
