The National Sports Commission (NSC) has expressed readiness to host Conference of African Athletes (CAA) U20/U18 African Junior Championship in Abeokuta, from July 16 to 20, 2025.
The Director General of the NSC, Hon. Bukola Olopade disclosed this during a World Press Conference at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Media Center in Abuja.
Olopade who is also the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) said the forthcoming championship in Abeokuta is a one of the interventions of Mallam Shehu Dikko when he traveled to Algeria, where he solicited that Nigeria has the capacity to host the championship
He said: “To empower young people through sports; creating sports economy within sports, and also creating wealth for young men and women through small scale businesses and to harness and develop young talents”, he stated.
“The public services are standing up to be counted and the private sector are also standing to be counted. We cannot give you the figures, but we will do the final accounting and it will be left for Mallam Shehu Dikko to approve the final figure.
“Some corporate bodies trust us and are ready to support us.”
Olopade said so far, the Conference of African Athletes (CAA), has contributed $300 to the event adding that other corporate institutions such as the MTN, the Bank of Industries, have also indicated their willingness for sponsorship too.
He added: “We have a strategy which is for capacity building, to discover young talents and develop them for both local and international championship.”
Talking to the leader of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN), the DG said, “Your mandate is simple: produce new athletes that can compete with established athletes because I am sure, that is what the whole country wants to see.
“Let AFN go and churn out new talents that will become world beaters in readiness for Commonwealth world games at Los Angeles, in November 2028.”