Coaches and technical officials of the Niger Delta Games (NDG) will benefit from a training programme planned to improve their efficiency ahead of the 2026 Games, according to the games’ managing consultant.
Responding to a question on Channels Television Sports on Sunday on how the games organisers plan to sustain the discovery of talents in the years ahead, the Managing Director of Dunamis Icon Limited, Sir Itiako Ikpokpom lamented the poor remuneration of coaches and wondered how their employers expect them to travel to communities to identify new talents.
‘We are working with partners, the Niger Delta Development Commission, and, specifically for this event only, the Nigeria Local Content Development and Management Board to organise a workshop in January for coaches and technical officials’.
He urged governments in the states and at the federal level to fund sports the same way they are funding road and hospital projects.
‘For us to make any impact in sports, government must invest in sports infrastructure. It is good to build roads and hospitals, and it is also important that we invest in sports infrastructure’, Ikpokpo challenged the governments.
Continuing on the challenge of infrastructure deficit, Ikpokpo, who is the chairman of the Delta State Athletics Association, lamented that schools are built in Nigeria without provisions for sports grounds.
‘The schools are the cradle of sports development, yet we have people building schools with no sports facilities’, he said.
He promised that the second NDG, scheduled to take place in Benin, the Edo State capital, will be an improvement on all fronts than the last edition.
