Duro Ikhazuagbe
GTI Asset Management & Trust Limited, an innovative financial services provider, strongly believes that The Nigerian Football Fund (TNFF) it set up recently to raise N5billion for football and sports project from the capital market will lead to a massive growth in the sector.
Speaking at an interactive session with sports and business journalists in Lagos yesterday, GTI’s Executive Director on Fund Management, Nelson Ine, insisted that there is no reason why the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) should not be on the same pedestal as the English Premier League because of the abundance of talent in the country.
Using the Premier League as an example, Ine pointed out at the growth trajectory as the league over 30 years grew from a £192 million value to £10.5 billion in 2022.
He pointed at how the Nigerian music and movie sector have conquered the world to begin to earn mega money at the moment.
The GTI director points out that if the right structures are put in place in Nigeria coupled with trusted corporate governance, Nigerian football will boost the country’s GDP.
“The Nigerian Football Fund (TNFF) is a collective investment scheme and mutual fund that combines the regular advantages of a mutual fund with unique propositions of a structured fund. The value of our asset is to deliver value. That is Return on Investment (ROI). The NPFL ought to be an asset giving value to investors. Just like our Music and Movie sector. With what we have on ground and anticipated to pull in from the capital market, in four years, we may not have more than four government teams in the league,” observed the GTI executive director who also insisted that the asset company was not a sponsor of the league but rather a strategic partner.
The GTI at the moment can be credited for the paradigm shift in the running of the NPFL which has resulted in teams going away to win matches without molesting of match of officials. It has also taken away the burden of match officials indemnities from the league organisers and clubs.
It promised to raise the N5 billion through an initial public offer (IPO) of 5.0 billion units at a par value of N1.2 kobo per unit. “The minimum subscription to the fund is 100,000 or N100,000 and thereafter in multiples of N100,000,” stressed Ine.
He advised investors seeking equities to put their monies to take advantage of the TNFF. “If you can recall, the telecom environment didn’t look rosy when we had NITEL. Nigerians investors refused to invest until South Africans came in into our telecom and digital world. They are reaping it now. The same thing is going to happen with our football very soon. What we have been doing here is sports activities and not business activities,”
In his vote of thanks, the Group Managing Director/CEO of GTI, Mr. Abubakar Lawal, “Because funding has always been a challenge to the growth of sports in Nigeria, we intend to harness the various resources through innovative financial schemes and help build a very vibrant football economy in the sports ecosystem.
He challenged journalists to be alive to their roles in helping worthy projects like the TNFF solve sports sector funding problems.
The application list for the offer was opened about a year ago and it was registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an open-ended fund. It is envisaged to fill the missing link in the development of Nigerian sports.
