By Adebayo Adeoye in Abuja
As a buildup to the National Sports Festival (NSF) billed for last quarter of this year, a pre-Festival Benefit Concerts would be held on Saturday, September 15th at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja with features from Nigerian A-list artistes.
The 2018 event, is organised and managed by the National Sports Festival Marketing and Management Company Limited; a private sector driven initiative by Greenfield Assets Limited in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Youth & Sports Development.
The main event, according to the organisers would hold from the 6th December 6th to16th, 2018 with the theme, “Abuja 2018 – World Series Edition”.
Speaking at the press conference the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung disclosed that the event that has been suspended since 2012, would take place again this year in Abuja, FCT.
The minister who also hinted on the several challenges that have hampered the sport event in the past, added, “Several states have indicated interest to host this biennial festival without success as they usually back out at the last minute due to diverse reasons. Given this state of affairs, the Ministry in consultation with relevant stakeholders, undertook a comprehensive reappraisal of the situation with a view to arriving at the way forward for this iconic event.
After this soul searching, we reached the unanimous decision that it is time for a holistic review of the existing model for hosting this national event and we decided that the way forward is to involve the private sector in the organization, marketing and administration of the NSF.’’
