Posted by The PM News on
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has urged the private sector to invest in sports as a means of harnessing the vast business opportunities therein for the development of the country
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has urged the private sector to invest in sports as a means of harnessing the vast business opportunities therein for the development of the country
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. He said that the private sector in the country stands to benefit tremendously as a body aside from the boost 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 merchandising', the governor said.
According to him '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 merchandising.
'I have always explained it by saying, ‘bring people to the arena and you will bring money. He added that the opportunities that sports provide transcend every sector of the economy.
Governor Fashola, however, said the responsibility of such partnership lay with the government doing the right thing. 'If we do the right things, the private sector will respond and I think that infrastructure provision is the first place to start', he stated.
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 imparting 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, said 'We are committed to building what we think is a minimum acceptable sporting infrastructure'.He said 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, the Government is also constructing synthetic turfs across 12 centres in the state including Campos Square in Central Lagos and Agege.
'We are looking for partnership and branding rights to develop these centres', Fashola said. He added that such partnership would be of mutual benefit to both the government and the private sector partners.