Golf: Nigeria Secures Membership of Europe PGA

Golf: Nigeria Secures Membership of Europe PGA

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

Nigeria has joined the PGA of Europe as an international affiliate Member Country.

It joined Botswana in becoming the latest African countries to be conferred with the PGA of Europe membership.

The PGA of Nigeria was founded in 1969 and has a membership of 173 professionals working in around 70 golf clubs.

The PGA of Nigeria membership has increased from four at its very beginning to become a well-established body that operates closely with the Nigeria Golf Federation (NGF), as well as further afield with almost ten per cent of its members working internationally in Ghana, Cameroon, Togo and Senegal.

Various local state governments have begun to provide golf lessons in schools as a vehicle for youth empowerment, alleviating poverty, generating employment and helping the environment, and the PGA of Nigeria continues to work with the federation to increase this involvement.

Secretary of the PGA of Nigeria, Jide Bolaji, added, “The Nigerian PGA aims to promote and develop golf, seek career development and capacity building opportunities and update its members in the profession, and we have a clear strategic plan to achieve this.

“The future of golf in our country is bright and there are many opportunities to for us to develop, and now with the support of the PGAs of Europe, our future can be even brighter.

“We are delighted that the PGA of Botswana and the PGA of Nigeria have taken the steps required to fulfill our membership requirements and standards for Affiliate Membership, which has taken our European and International membership to 38 countries,” said PGAs of Europe Chief Executive, Ian Randell.

“In conjunction with the PGA of South Africa, we have worked with them for many years and now look forward to visiting each country and assisting their further development so that they may progress from Affiliate to Full International Member countries in the very near future. For more than two decades, we have conducted golf development activity not just in our own Member Countries, but also all over the world, particularly in the delivery of golf development expertise for The R&A in its “Working for Golf” programme, and it is fantastic to welcome these two nations formally into our membership.”

In becoming Members, the PGA of Botswana and PGA of Nigeria gain access to the services and benefits of being a part of an international community of national PGAs and PGA Professionals, sharing good practice in areas such as membership, education, business, and the development of the game.

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