The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Institute for Sports (NIS), Rt. Hon. Philip Shaibu, has urged basketball promoter and Initiator of the Mark D’ Ball Basketball Championship, Mr. Igoche Mark, not to relent in his efforts to develop the game in Nigeria.
Shaibu made the appeal on Monday in Abuja when he received Mark, who was on a visit to assess basketball coaches currently undergoing training under Mark’s sponsorship.
“I want to thank you for stopping by to see some of our students. I am told that you are sponsoring quite a number of them, and I am confident that this partnership will yield results,” Shaibu said.
“We have positioned the NIS to be private sector-driven, and that is how it should be. Over-reliance on government funding is no longer sustainable. Government has created several agencies and MDAs that should naturally be driven by the private sector, but the culture of waiting for the annual budget cycle has left many of them moribund.
“For us at the NIS, we understand that this institute is the engine room of sports. It is responsible for the empowerment of the sporting ecosystem. Anyone working in the sports sector is supposed to pass through here for training.
