FG To Collaborate With French Development Agency to Develop Sports In Nigeria

The Federal Government of Nigeria has stated her willingness to collaborate and work
with the French Development Agency (AFD) to  develop Sports and will be happy if assistance can be given in the area of equiping the High Performance Centres to required international standard and
optimize the potentials of Nigeria’s female and male athletes.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports
Development (FMYSD) Mr. Olusade Adesola made this known while
receiving a delegation of French Development Agency (AFD) on a
courtesy visit. Mr. Adesola averred that the visit by the FDA was
timely and fortuitous for the Ministry to rediscover ways and means of
strengthening institutions and facilities for Sports in Nigeria.

While conceding the fact that the FMYSD does not have a policy that
particularly target females in Sports, he affirmed that the Ministry
have an entrenched and tested policies and programmes that ensured
that Nigeria’s participation in Local and international Games include
Gender balance.

Besides the Nigerian Female Football National Teams across FIFA age
brackets, Mr. Adesola cited instances of other Competitive Games that
are primarily organised to harness and nurture budding talents across
the demographic  bracket of youthful age of Nigeria’s population of
180 million.  These, according to him, include the National Sports
Festival, National Youth Games and other international Sporting Games.

Furthermore, he also asserted that the urgent need to recognize and
build High Performance Centres in the country with standard equipment
and facilities cannot be overemphasized in developing Sports in
Nigeria, adding  FDAs assistance in this regard would be mostly
appreciated to enhance Nigeria’s athletes performance in competitive
Games.

In her remarks, Alice Ribes stated that her mission to the Federal
Ministry of Youth and Sports Development is  one of a fact finding
mission, to ascertain how Sports work in Nigeria and explore areas of mutual benefit while hoping to partner with a view towards optimizing the
potentials of Nigeria’s athletes, particularly for gender growth in
Sporting activities.