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The minister of sports and youth development Mr. Sunday Dare has hailed the visionary leadership of Sam Ocheho led board of the Handball Federation of Nigeria for the rapid growth of handball in the country.
The minister who was on a working visit to Lagos before dropping by at Rowe park center venue of ongoing Prudent Energy Handball Premier League phase 2 to
watched two matches i.e Seasider Babes/Kada Queens and Sokoto Rima/Owena.Mr Dare who was quite impressed with the level of play and organisation tweeted on his twitter handle saying
‘My first stop this morning in Lagos was the Rowe Park Sports Complex in Yaba to watch our youth play at the #PrudentEnergyHandballLeague. It was interesting watching male and female teams from Sokoto, Ondo, Lagos and Kaduna play handball so enthusiastically.Incredible team effort’
He also went further to
praised HFN president, Sam Ocheho and MD of Prudent energy ,Abdulwasiu sowami in his tweet
‘Handball is a personal favourite of mine, so I refused to pass up the chance to see a few games at the #PrudentEnergyHandballLeague. Great job by the federation in charge. Kudos to the MD of Prudent Energy, AbdulWasiu Sowami for his adoption of the handball National leaque. ‘
He praised entire handball family for reviving the sport from its state of near death to a sport that is back to reckoning in Nigeria.He particularly praised Ocheho for his zeal in revamping the entire system of handball and bringing his wealth of knowledge to the administration of the sport.He also promised the support of the ministry in terms of funds and other logistics.“I had a private conversation with HFN president and i must thank him for his resourcefulness, commitment and devotion in terms of commitment and using his resources in preparing teams for competition”. He saidThe ministry will not only find some level of support and funding for HFN but work with the board to get more corporate organisations to sponsor activities of the federation.I have told Mr. Ocheho that he should prepare the programme of the federation latest by January so we can factor them into our plans. We are developing a business model around sports which involves lots corporate/private companies partnership. When that model is fully developed, we will start implementing it. Sports development, including handball will get massive support”.The minister who promised that the ministry of sports will have a better relationship with HFN as he intends to be minister for all sports not just a particular sport, paid plaudit on the sponsor of the handball league, Prudent Energy for helping in the development of handball saying that it is the right formula for the growth of sports in the country.
