NSC To Set Aside 45% Allocation For Grassroots Dev’

The mainbowl of Adokiye Amiesimaka Staduim waiting to host the Dream Team and their Congo counterparts on Sunday

The Director-General, National Sports Commission (NSC), Alhassan Yakmut has said the commission plans to set aside between 25 to 45 per cent of its annual allocation for grassroots sports development.
An NSC statement released by the commission’s Deputy Director Press, Stephen Nelson, quotes Yakmut as saying yesterday in Abuja that this was the only way to discover young talents to replace aging athletes.
It noted that Yakmut said this while addressing zonal coordinators of the commission on the need to groom young athletes, at which he lamented the deficiencies observed in the coordinators’ technical approach to discovering new talents.
It urged them to prove their mettle by organising annual competitions for young athletes to showcase their talents.
The statement said the commission would distribute its resources for sporting activities strictly on well-thought out programmes.
“The time has come, when professionalism has to be put to test and key indicators in sports measured”.
The statement quotes him as saying that the commission would meet regularly with coordinators to create awareness on the `modus operandi’ for grassroots sports development.
It stressed the need to harness talents from the grassroots, saying that not less than 60 per cent of Nigeria’s population was youths, from where talents could emerge.
The statement said that each of the zones would be required to organise championship that would assist them in discovering talents.
“With the system, the coaches should adopt should be such that will have symbiotic collaboration. To achieve this, we need to renew our work ethics and have a checklist,” he was quoted as saying.