FEC Approves N2.4bn for National Sports Medicine, High Performance Centre

 Olawale Ajimotokan  in Abuja 

The  Federal Executive Council (FEC)  has approved the sum of N2.4bn for the construction of a new National Sports Medicine and High Performance Centre at the Moshood Abiola National  Stadium, Abuja.

 Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Chief Sunday Dare, disclosd this while briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting. The project is expected to be completed in three years.

Dare said the ministry presented just one memo which had to do with the National Sports Medicine and the construction of a High-Performance Centre at the Package B of the Moshood Abiola Stadium, which was graciously considered and approved.

He attributed the lack of a National Sports Medicine and High Performance Centre to improve the overall performances of Nigerian athletes as one of the drawbacks of sports development and athletes performances in the country.

Dare explained that global sports development practice has High Performance Centre as a major component of conditioning athletes.

“It takes your athletes beyond just raw talent to some level of sports science and precision and the lack of that scientific input into our sports development over time has not helped us to reach the maximum podium performance that can be attained by our athletes. We have seen, particularly in Kenya and South Africa, where we have something close to that and what their performances are,” he said.

He noted that the new High-Performance Centre has an in-built maintenance structure in its lifecycle design, adding that more than 80 percent of the equipment that will be needed is digital equipment already secured and obtained at Moshood Abiola National Stadium. 

“What we need is to construct the specialised building where we’re going to install all of these.

And if this is done, the number one High Performance Centre in the whole of the African continent is the one in South Africa and if we are able to complete the one in Abuja here, that will be the second one in Africa.”

The minister also said the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has given two stadia in Nigeria the nod to host CAF competitions.

The two stadia are Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja and Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo.