FG To Concession Abuja, Lagos Stadia

Sports Minister Suleiman Yusuf, says the Federal Government plans to concession the two National stadiums in Lagos and Abuja under the new Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

Suleiman told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent in Addis Ababa at the weekend that the proposed PPP would also include the Games Village, Lagos and some other sporting facilities in the country.

“I will work out the concession arrangement through a PPP to manage our sporting facilities in Lagos and Abuja.

“We will arrange a partnership with Taraba State Government on the Mambilla High Performance Sport Centre,” Suleiman said.

“The partnership will provide an arrangement for a private sector to manage the National Stadium, Lagos, the Abuja National Stadium and the Games Village, Lagos,” the minister said.

Suleiman, who is Chairman, National Sports Commission (NSC), said apart from managing the facilities, the arrangement would also ensure maximum utilisation of all facilities, currently rotting away.

On the High Performance Sports Centre in Mambilla, Suleiman said the ministry would partner with Taraba Government to make the centre functional.

“I will visit the centre and discuss partnership arrangement with Taraba State Government,” he said.

Suleiman said the ministry would also engage its counterpart in education to revive sporting activities, especially in private schools across the country.

“I have already discussed with the minister of education on the need to ensure that all private schools both primary and secondary have the requisite sporting facilities before they are registered,” Suleiman said.

He said one of the identified problems was that private primary and secondary schools were not under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education.

Suleiman said he would take the same initiative with the Federal Ministry of Housing to ensure that as a matter of policy, all estates fulfill a requirement of citing sporting facilities before they were approved.