The Youth and Sports Development Minister, Mr Sunday Dare, clocks a year in office today and a great lot has been achieved in a short space of time and he still hope to achieve more as time goes by.
The goalintense crew take a look at his 365 days in office and landmark achievements he has made and the standards he has set in the history of Nigeria.
The brilliant leader initiated an idea called Adopt an Athlete initiative, which has Thirty three 33 athletes who has been adopted for sponsor towards Olympics to the tune of 200 million. The local athletes get 10,000 USD and the foreign athlete were adopted for 20,000 USD which is quite huge for athletes to get cash even before the Olympics starts.
He also initiated the Athlete Relieve Fund. This fund was disbursed to 200 athlete to cushion the effect of COVID19 pandemic on their professional careers. This lofty idea has eventually turned to project were the athletes will be given funds every year to sustain and develop their skills for championship and events.
Another one is Athlete Welfare Scheme was an idea the Minister brought in to assist the family of fallen hero like late Rashidi Yekini, Late Samuel Okwaraji, Late Sunday Bada with host others and living legends in the Sports industry so that the families can have that sence of love and affections from the country they represented well. This scheme give them the benefit where the federal government pays the family salary.
Taking about the facilities because sports without facilities is in shambles, the minister started the Stadium Rehabilitation Projects.
This project is also one of the major project the Minister had embarked on and at the moment two stadiums has been adopted Lagos and Abuja national stadiums are currently undergoing World Cup standard facelift.
Moreover, the minister never shut his eyes on grassroot sports development as he developed a process called Talent Hunt.
This is also a major factor towards achieving the country’s set target at the international championships which is also a key factor towards Grassroot Sports Development. The likes of Shekinah a eight years old boxer who has been given scholarships and being monitored by the ministry and also the twins swimmers.
At the moment there are 22 students on scholarships in a school in Abuja. They were all discovered at the last National Youth Games in Ilorin.
Over 2000 Nigerian youth has trained on digital training under the youth sector of the Ministry.
Youth investment funds where 75 billion Naira was approved by the Federal Government led by President Muhammad Buhari for the youth to assist and scale up the MSMEs in the country.
The Minister has also gone out of his way I bring in countless public private partnership foster the growth of youth and Sport development.
These achievement underscore his ability that he is a rear genius who wants to achieve set goals and serve his people the right way. The same was observed when he was Director at the Nigeria Communication Commission.
The former director of NCC was appointed and sworn in by the President Muhammad Buhari on 21st August, 2019 in Abuja.
