The emergence of GTI Asset Management and Trust Limited into Nigeria’s football ecosystem has helped to restructure and reposition Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) for greatness following the chains of successes so far achieved in the execution of the 2022/23 abridged league. Already, the NPFL will be entering another crucial stage of a playoff involving the six top clubs – three in each of the two groups – in the league to ascertain the ultimate winner of this highly contested soccer season.
From 1st to 11th June 2023, the city of Lagos – and Mobolaji Johnson Sports Arena, Onikan precisely – will be agog as the six top teams will slug it out in what football analysts described as, “Mother of All Football Battles”. Here, all six teams will play each other in a round-robin to decide the NPFL champions for the 2022/23 season.
History will also be made this season as the winner of the NPFL championship playoff will go home with a mouth-watering price money of N100 million, alongside a giant trophy, which has never happened since the inception of league football in Africa’s most populous black nation.
Following the emergence of NPFL ‘s strategic partners, GTI Trust and Asset Management Nigeria Limited into Nigeria’s football ecosystem, the company saw the need to partner with the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NPFL in order to add value and administer the league as a business enterprise than a mere recreational sport. The IMC of the NPFL, alongside the Board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), are witnesses to the sincerity, seriousness and irresistible blueprint of GTI to turn the NPFL around and gave its nod.
Prior to the commencement of the 2022/23 abridged NPFL, GTI had unveiled an investment fund tagged ‘The Nigerian Football Fund’ (TNFF) to enhance and restructure the country’s sports industry, beginning with football. It was therefore a strategic fit to use the vehicle of the TNFF to energise the NPFL to reposition and activate the various revenue sources.
TNFF is a specialised collective investment scheme that combines the regular advantages of a mutual fund with the unique propositions of a structured fund which is aimed at raising N5 billion through an initial public offering of 5.0 billion units at N1 per unit. According to GTI, the minimum subscription to the fund is 100,000, or in multiples of N100,000 thereafter. The application list for the offer was opened on Tuesday, 22nd March 2022, and many investors have already invested in the fund, while many others are lining up with the hope of tapping into this goldmine termed Nigeria’s new green oil.
As explained by TNFF Project Director, Mr. Nelson Ine, the fund is approved and registered by the Securities and Exchange Commission as an open-ended fund that is managed by GTI Asset Management and Trust Limited, a member of GTI Group.
Ine, who doubles as the Executive Director for Fund Management at GTI, assured that the investment initiative would give Nigerian football a great boost because of its enormous potential. Also, with a substantial Return on Investment, investors will enjoy TNFF because of its better yields comparable to other financial instruments in the market.
As noted earlier – and statistically proven – the quality of the NPFL is on the rise in terms of officiating, funding, followership (both online and offline), and clubs are getting richer as each football season progresses. Therefore, with all the growth indicators clearly confirming the positive impact of TNFF on NPFL, it is possible that in the next two seasons, NPFL would become the most cherished football league in Africa and the world.
Lending his voice to the laudable initiative that GTI, through TNFF, will bring to the Nigeria football ecosystem, former Deputy Lagos State Governor, Otunba Femi Pedro unequivocally told the Nigerian sporting media that TNFF would fill the missing link in the development of Nigerian sports generally because it provides a unique vehicle to mobilise private sector funding for sports development, which also would contribute significantly to national economic development.
Pedro further noted that efficient and consistent funding had been the missing gap undermining the potential of the Nigerian sports ecosystem and said that that would be successfully addressed with the TNFF initiative as it would help unlock the potential of the sports ecosystem in Nigeria. Already the positive feedbacks from analysts regarding the ongoing NPFL 2022/23 season is a testimony to the immediate impact of the TNFF initiative on the league.
From the feelers gathered by the Media and Publicity department of GTI/TNFF, clubs no longer fear playing away matches with hands in their mouths because a solution has finally been found. Also, in maintaining the discipline, integrity and quality of officiating, the NPFL Disciplinary Committee does not waste time to discipline any erring match official or club.
To further checkmate inducements on match officials, Matchday officials now receive their entitlements 48 hours before any match, many thanks to GTI for helping in ending poor officiating during matches. Frankly, the success story of the 2022/23 season is a testimony of greater things to follow in the upcoming seasons as TNFF is already harvesting the potential of its impact in Nigeria’s football ecosystem with regard to people, talent, passion and resources.
The benefits accruing as a result of the TNFF/GTI initiative are super attractive and unique because they are helping in reducing government involvement in sports funding which has been the bane of sports development in Nigeria since independence in 1960.
Former NFF Vice President, Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi believes that the TNFF project would herald a lot of greatness in the Nigerian sports industry with several multiplier effects on the economy, security and youth employment as a result of the yawning gap in the sector. He thumbed up GTI for this great initiative.
The Group Managing Director, GTI Group, Abubakar Lawal also believes that the TNFF initiative would serve as an enabler for sustainable funding of football and other sports in the country, with a target of growing sports’ contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product to 0.5 per cent within the next five years. He added that the TNFF initiative is a massive project such that employment will be created, liquidity provided, infrastructure delivered, insecurity managed, and the economy will be developed from this experience.
