Nelson Ine, the Executive Director of GTI Asset Management & Trust Limited, says the private sector is the right path for sports development in Nigeria.
Ine, who said this in an interview with Wakawaka Sports Extra, noted that the sports sector in the country should be managed properly in line with the international best practices.
According to him, government only provides the conducive environment for sports to thrive while the business practitioners and private sector run the day-to-day affairs of running the business.
Ine said that GTI is committed to give a new direction to Nigerians on the right path to follow while projecting an average footballer to earn N100million per month in 20 years to come.
Ine said: “It’s just the management of GTI that is actually behind the whole project and its a vision of the group managing director that felt that the sports sector is troubled and there is a lot of crisis in the sports sector.
“Our own core area is looking at providing solutions to various problems that could impact positively on the society and sports sector is one of those sectors that is very central to the overall well-being of the society.
“We are not looking at backlog of referees indemnity again but we are looking at the future. The backlog belongs to the past. We are interested in the present and the future and what we have done is to proffer a sustainable solution which can be attested to by everyone that it has worked and we know it will work.
“What we want to do differently is to run the sports the way it ought to be run in line with the international best practices. Every sector have their basic fundamental principles. It is the same talents that we have not managed here that has been exported to other countries and those countries that have the right system and structure in place have used these talents to win laurels.
“There is a huge management gap that we need to cover up and that has to do with capacity development. We need to start developing our administrators to understand what it takes to run the game many of them need to go for refreshal courses and reorient themselves with the business aspect of the game.
“There are still some group of people who believe that without government our professional sports cannot thrive. The government only provides the conducive environment that sports thrive but it’s the business practitioners, the private sector that comes to take over the day-to-day affairs of running that business.
“We are only just trying to create that drive, give that new direction to make Nigerians know that this is the right path to follow for the benefit of the whole ecosystem.
“There is still room for Nigerians to take advantage of this investment vehicle. It’s a unique model that has never be done anywhere in this world. Giving the implementation with which we have, the world has a lot to learn from what we are going to deliver.
“My projection for Nigeria sports in the future, I want to look back 20 years from now and see an average Nigeria footballer earning N100million per month. We still have a catching up to do.”
It might interest you to know that GTI Asset Management & Trust Limited and the Nigeria Football Fund (TNFF), are strategic partners to the Nigeria Premier Football League, saddled with the responsibility to run the affairs of the league.
