(NSC) Director General, Hon Gbenga Elegbeleye has revealed that Nigeria’s top athletes like Blessing Okagbare, Ajoke Odumosun and others who won medals and also made it to the finals of their respective events in the recently concluded World Athletics Championship in Russia, will be getting quarterly grants to support them in their training regimes.
According to him, these top Nigerian athletes and those representing other countries abroad need to be encouraged through funding so that some of them would rethink coming back home to represent the land of their birth.
Elegbeleye was, however, quick to add that such grants would be incumbent on the performance of the athletes in future meets, whilst also stressing that the beneficiaries would be in three categories namely A, B and C while category A will be treated first while others follow.
The NSC DG, who was in London on August 17th, 2013 to deliver a seminar on the Africans in Diaspora Initiative where he gave an inspiring lecture on ‘Nigerians Sports and the Enabling Environment’ urged Nigerian athletes abroad to come
back home and help in the growth of sports in Nigeria.
“We have to make our system look attractive and also workable for these athletes to come in terms of welfare packages”.
“Recently the National Sports Commission decided to change the trend as regards the way we package our sports programmes and has introduced a welfare package that will be attractive to our athletes wherever they are, anywhere
