Ifeanyi Ezeokoli, Managing Director, Incel Tourism Group, is confident that Team Nigeria can win up to 10 gold medals at the Olympic Games when the Sports Performance Fund is fully in place.
Ezeokoli, a fitness buff and avid sports fan, made the statement when he hosted representatives of the SPRF in his Ikoyi, Lagos office over the weekend.
“I was in my hometown recently and saw some young men challenging themselves with weights made from cast concrete and I thought with my gym experience I could compete. What I struggled to lift they just lifted like it was a notebook. They were competing for bragging rights and I could sense betting. I believe that once they know about the SPRF rewards they will take it to Olympic level,” he said.
The SPRF board of trustees was represented by it’s president Musa Ahmadu-Kida, Odein Ajumogobia, vice president and Godwin Kienka, the executive secretary.
“We have no doubt that this initiative will attract massive private sector involvement in Nigeria’s sports development and inspire our youths to excel at the world st age,” Ahmadu-Kida said.
Thereafter, Ezeokoli made a significant “on the spot” contribution to the fund, which he insisted should not be made public. However, Ajumogobia, former Minister of Petroleum and later Foreign Affairs, informed his host that in line with the SPRF policy, all donations will be reflected on the website for all stakeholders to follow but those with privacy requests would be marked anonymous.
The SPRF is planning to raise an initial N10bn, which will be warehoused for generations of Nigerian sporting youths and will be used only for that purpose. Olympic gold winners will get N10m, silver medallists N7.5m and bronze medallists N5m.
Commonwealth gold, silver and bronze winners are you receive N5m, N3m and N2m respectively, while the African Games and major world championships will attract N3m for gold, N2m for silver and N1m for bronze.
Credit Gist New Today News in Newspaper Nigeria Headlines
