NSC, Youth Ministry, Qatari Ambassador hold strategic sports relationship meeting
Chairman of the National Sports Commission Mallam Shehu Dikko on Friday, June 5, held a strategic meeting at the NSC headquarters with the Ambassador of Qatar H.E Yousef Mohammed Ahmed Al-Hail aimed at fostering sporting relationships and collaborations between Nigeria and Qatar. Also in attendance was Minister of Youth Development Comrade Olawande Ayodele.
It will be recalled that after a state visit to Qatar in March 2024, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR reached wide-ranging agreements with the Qatari Government aimed at strengthening economic ties between both nations.
There were seven key agreements reached during that visit. These were cooperation agreements in the area of sports, youths development, education, tourism, business events; regulation of employment of workers with the Government of Qatar; MoU combating illicit trade in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; and establishment of a joint business council (JBC) between the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Nigerian Association of Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA).
The engagement meeting with the NSC was therefore in furtherance of the cooperative agreement on sports. All parties sought to iron out a sports-specific collaboration that will benefit Nigerian and Qatari teams as well as boost sports infrastructure in the nation.
The NSC Chairman said, "There has to be proper and sustainable cooperation between Nigeria and Qatar in sports. Already President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR had signed an MoU to this effect when he visited Qatar in 2024. We are only trying to add flesh to that agreement and put together the right activities to activate the MoU to the benefit of both countries. I and the Minister of Youth Development were planning to come to Qatar to this effect before the middle east crisis started. We thank God everything is subsiding now.
"The President is very deliberate about using sports as a tool to advance social and economic development hence he scrapped the Sports Ministry and set up the National Sports Commission so that we can harness the potentials of sports economy. To this effect he has declared sports as a national asset. We now calculate how much sports can contribute to the GDP of the nation. At the last count, we were contributing at least 1% each quarter. We want to create more sporting jobs and we are targeting about 2 million direct, indirect and induced jobs.
"There is a lot that we can learn from Qatar with regard to sports especially on infrastructure development as key foundation to advancing sports development. We want to fix our sporting infrastructure because it is the basis of all we are doing. Qatar had done it before by putting together the best sporting facilities to host the last World Cup and indeed several other world class sports infrastructure and systems. If we activate this MoU, it will help straighten all these processes. So we are happy to work together to deliver on this mandate through cross-fertilization of ideas and collaborations and we are very committed to the partnership in line to the Renewed Hope and Shared prosperity vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the RHINSE framework."
Minister of Youth Development Comrade Olawande Ayodele corroborated Mallam Dikko's views.
His words, "We truly mean business. We want to see how we can foster sporting relationships and by extension youth development between Nigeria and Qatar. You have to see how you can set up a sports academy here that will engage most of our youths. Sports is a major vehicle to keep our youths busy and away from social vices. Fortunately, we have a hardworking and industrious Chairman of the Commission who can make this happen. This visit will open doors to greater sporting collaborations between both countries."
His Excellency Yousef Mohammed Ahmed Al-Hail is optimistic that the engagement will deepen the Nigeria/Qatar relations through sports. He assured of Qatar's cooperation particularly in the area of sporting infrastructure, boosting the national teams' preparations for major tournaments, academy development, hosting of sporting events and exporting sporting talents.
The meeting concluded with a clear understanding between the parties to set up a working team to immediately determine the structures and timelines for the activations of the MOU and commencement of activities across board between the two countries.
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