The Director General of the National Sports commission (NSC), Bukola Olopade has revealed that over one million pieces of Adire clothing have been sold in just 10 days, citing the economic boom triggered by the festival.
He added that 9,940 athletes and officials were initially registered for the event, but the number has increased to over 11,000, further intensifying economic activity across the state.
He stated this during his first official Press Conference with journalists covering the 22nd National Sports Festival (NSF) at the Media centre of the Games in Abeokuta.
Olopade stated: “You cannot underestimate the power of Sports. Sports deals with everything that has to do with development. From infrastructural development, to capacity building, entertainment and hospitality.
“This is why you can’t put in Naira and Kobo what the revenue value of this sort of event is. Sports goes to road maintenance, building of new roads, capacity building, feasibility, positioning of not just the country but the host state.
“To explain it further, how do I aggregate in dollars the value of that opening ceremony that was seen in more than fifty countries. Does that not announce Ogun state to the World?. It’s not money you can recoup immediately.”
“Over 300 small scale businesses are operating inside the stadium currently because of the Games. and when you go to Babcock university and its surrounding, over a 100 small scale businesses are operating there as well.
“I also know that in the last ten days, over a million Adire materials have been sold because the Adire sellers are complaining now that they have ran out of stock”.
“Look at the hotels too and one cannot say the profits that have been made by them because of the games. This is why we want to urge more states to host the Festival as it opens a lot of doors for indigent people in the society.”