Central Bank of Nigeria

The annual All Financial Institutions Football Competition, sponsored by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), will begin Monday in four centres across the country.

The designated venues are Lagos, Abeokuta, Minna and Lokoja. The tournament will parade 20 teams which have been classified into four groups.

Though the quarter finals will be held in the four zonal centres, the semi final will be played in Ibadan and Ilorin while the final will be played in Calabar on October 13.

Director Corporate Communications department CBN, Ugochukwu Okoroafor, told reporters that the tournament prize money for this year had been reviewed in order to make the event competitive.

The total prize money of N5 million will be split by the four teams that berth the semi final.

The winner will earn N2 million, second place N1.5million, while the third placed team will fetch N1million.

The prize money was reviewed upwards from the sum of N3.7 million offered the teams last year.

According to Okoroafor, CBN resolved to organize the tournament to forge a spirit of harmony, unity and peaceful co-existence among players in Nigeria’s financial system as football is a unifying force devoid of ethnic, regional and political colorations.
The financial institutions tournament, held in conjunction with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), is in its 26th year, having graced the stage in 1979.

Some of the institutions and government agencies that will participate at the event are drawn from Jos, Kaduna, Ijebu Ode, Lagos, Bida and Abuja.