Sequel to an earlier collaborative meeting with the officials of Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) aimed at changing the face of sports broadcasting in Nigeria, National Sports Commission Chairman Mallam Shehu Dikko is already walking the talk. To this effect, Mallam Dikko has been holding strategic meetings with key stakeholders and partners in Paris, France.

The three days engagements and bilateral meetings involved the NSC Chairman, the Nigerian delegation that also included teams from the NTA and other relevant agencies under Federal Ministry of Information and Orientation such as NBC, FRCN, VON etc. as well as technical advisors and Thomson Broadcast of France. Thomson Broadcast are the original manufacturers that designed, constructed and delivered the 6Nr Sports Outside Broadcast Vans (Sports OB Vans) to Nigeria sometime ago, among other technical projects across TV and Radio.

Speaking in the wake of the meetings, the NSC Chairman said, "Fundamentally, sports and media go hand in hand and it is media broadcast and content management that promotes sponsorship, viewership, proper monetization and revenue inflows into sports and generally drive sustainable development in the sports industry. The deficit of an appropriate sports broadcasting structure has been a huge drawback to Nigerian sports development and deliberate and intentional steps must be taken to resolve this debilitating deficit.

"Therefore, as a key part of the Renewed Hope Initiative for Nigeria’s Sports Economy (RHINSE) framework, the NSC has the objectives to ensure the availability of professional broadcast equipment/facilities, dedicated sports channels, regulations, competencies and capabilities in the county to enable the professional production, distribution and monetization of sports contents in the country in line with the best international practices. These steps would in turn provide the firm structural foundation for the proper harnessing of the potentials of the sports economy in the country."

To actualize this, the National Sports Commission is collaborating closely with NTA duly supported by the Federal Ministry of Information and orientation and other international partners to ensure that the available Sports OB Vans in Nigeria are rehabilitated and upgraded, including training of relevant technical personnel/competencies across the country. These resources would be made available to drive sports development, ensuring adequate quality coverage, promotion, distribution and monetization of all sporting activities in the country to the benefit of all stakeholders.

Dikko continues, "The engagements with Thomson Broadcast was aimed at agreeing a road map towards revamping the existing FGN-owned Sports OB Vans, resuscitating the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) located at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, training of personnel and transfer of expertise to be domiciled across all zones of the country, showcasing latest technologies and discussing tailored solutions to meet the needs of Nigerian sports broadcasting going forward among other issues of interest like E-sports development.

"In conclusion of this engagement, an outline Work Plan was agreed by the parties to get the project started, with clear deliverables/expected outcomes set both in the short, medium, and long term. This project, is one of the game changers required in the Nigerian sports and media space clearly aligned to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR's Renewed Hoped Agenda and Shared Prosperity vision. We remain grateful to Mr. President for empowering the NSC to set out on this road never traveled before at this level and institutional support. This is an extremely fundamental and practical step to delivering the vision to reset, refocus and relaunch Nigerian sports accordingly."

The NSC Chairman highlighted previous efforts aimed at resolution of the identified deficits while he was the LMC-NPFL Chairman.

His words, "It’s worthy to note that previously, under my watch as Chairman of the LMC, we had attempted a similar collaboration with NTA which now set the possibilities and pathway for this project. Though we achieved appreciable progress then during the previous attempt with the resolution of the sports broadcast regulatory framework under the NBC and production of over 60 live matches in 2021 alone for the NPFL, CAF and FIFA using the NTA equipments and domestic competencies.

"The matches were distributed across all platforms globally including the NPFL.TV channel we created, which had downloads across over 150 counties within first month of its launch. Unfortunately, the project floundered due to lack of institutional support and other adverse issues, but we were sure the lessons learnt would eventually shape the future now as we restart.

“It is, therefore, extremely exciting that it has now taken the clarity of vision, strength of conviction and unwavering support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR to identify and pursue this project as one of the fundamental key drivers for the transformation of the entire Nigeria sports industry and economy. Once again we reiterate our gratitude to Mr. President for his keen sense of history and transformational leadership as we get set to work to deliver the project with the support of all critical stakeholders and parties collectively."

Kehinde Ajayi (Mrs)

Director (Information and PR)

NSC

16/4/25