Monday Musings on Sports

Over a career and involvement in sports spanning more than 40 years, so much has happened, so much has been studied, so much still to unpack. My foray into sports started very early, as a 8-9 year old playing football on the streets with the neighborhood boys (the only girl who dared to step into that cauldron of "who dares, wins"), and holding my own - through the inevitable fights that ensued because I scored a goal, against all expectations! My love for Liverpool started then (they seemed to win everything then) and I always wanted to be captain of West Germany (they were winning everything as well!)

Street table tennis was another battle ground where despite my adherence to the rules of "who wins the game plays on", the fact that I kept winning meant that fights broke out because the boys didn't like the rules after I won three straight games....and stayed on the table, playing on!

I've played quite a few sports - basketball, netball, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, field hockey, badminton, squash. I even tried my legs in athletics - 800m - but it didn't take long to convince me that athletics was not my sport! Hockey, Badminton and Squash were the sports I stayed longest with...up to university level and beyond (for squash)

I've been an administrator, serving on State Sports Associations and National Sports Federations. I've consulted for several corporate organisations on using sports as a communication and marketing strategy, worked with several regulatory agencies on developing funding models for driving sports development at state and national level, marketed sports projects and events at different levels, designed and marketed events and content, and generally paid my dues as far as sports development and management in Nigeria are concerned. I've seen the challenges, I understand the issues and have joined others to seek solutions to the seemingly intractable problems confronting the sector.

Fourteen years ago in 2010, it became clear to some of us that without a significant, paradigm shift in how sports is perceived and situated in Nigeria in particular, and Africa in general, the continent would be so far behind other parts of the world, catching up would be a major issue. Ergo, the thinking behind developing a process for repositioning sports from a purely participatory sector, to one that is commercially viable based on strategies and initiatives to unlock the huge potentials of an industry with a huge fan base of at least 700m fans and followers.

My current role as a change management practitioner on sports development is the most challenging thing I've ever done because it involves confronting mindsets seemingly cast in stone, and engaging them so we try and work to understand the mindset shift required to deliver a commercially viable, sustainable sports industry in Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. I've been fortunate to find people of like minds willing to go on this journey to unlock the sports sector and transform it into an industry. Those willing minds enabled us to not only draft and pass the very first industry focused policy document for sports in Africa between 2020-2022 but midwifed the process of establishing Sport Nigeria LTD.GTE in 2021. In 3 years, we have engaged with stakeholders across States in Nigeria as well as on the African Continent, in line with our mantra - Redefine Engagement, Redefine Sports Business.

Those engagements formed the thinking behind the Sports Africa Investment Summit #SAIS as a start in achieving that unlocking process by serving as a focal point for Investors, the Private Sector, Countries, National and Continental Federations, Media organisations, Industry Stakeholders, Athletes, Trainers, etc. to facilitate information sharing that guides the delivery of bankable sports projects and initiatives that have social and economic impact on the continent. #SAIS is expected to enable the development of the sports industry through a range of interventions that accelerate Africa's sports trade and investment development including sports infrastructure assets, and strategies that see a sustainable, scalable approach towards taking raw talents to finished elite athletes, while also providing access to the millions of fans to live their passion for sports.

Over the next ten weeks, join me every Monday for Musings about my experiences in sports and on Thursdays for Thoughts on Sports and the Sports Africa Investment Summit.

It's a date every Monday and Thursday.

#SportsDevelopment #SportsAfricaInvestmentSummit #SportNigeria

#SportsAfrica

#TheAfricaWeWant2063