Abuja – The Director-General, National Sports Commission (NSC), Mr Al-Hassan Yakmut, has appealed to sports stakeholders to ensure transparency and accountability in sports administration.
He made the appeal on Tuesday in Abuja at the start of a four-day Sports Summit organised by the commission in collaboration with Spring Vision International Concept.
He said that the summit, with the theme: “Public- Private-Partnership Perspective’’ would explore avenues of partnership between the government and the private sector to enhance the development of sport.
“If you look at what is happening in Africa, the government is the major financer of sports and what we are preaching in the country is that we want to look outward.
“We should not restrict funding of sports to government alone; the private sector should be involved as well as private individuals who are interested in sports,’’ he said.
Yakmut, who was represented by Dr Ademola Are, Director, Grassroots Sports Development in the NSC, said that corruption and lack of involvement of the private sector was a major setback to sport development.
“Corruption and lack of private sector involvement are some of the reasons why this summit is important; we want to let them know that where you put your money you must be involved.
“There should be accountability, transparency on the part of the NSC and all the sports federations and we should be prudent in spending money,’’ he said.
Earlier, Mr Martins Bisong, the organiser of the summit, stressed the need for synergy between public and private sector in the development of sports.
He also stressed the need to attract investors to the sector.
“For years now, governments have been left alone to carry on the activities of sports hence we have low performances.
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“If you go to other western countries, you discover that sports are being run by private investors.
“But how do we attract investors; it is when the government initiate policies that will allow investors to come to the sector.
“Brand your services and they will come into it and get what they can benefit from sports,’’ Bisong said. (NAN)
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