Sports Minister Counting Down To End Of Tenure

Sunday Dare says his job as the Minister of Youth and Sports Development is done as the curtain is gradually drawing on his tenure.

The minister made this known in an interview yesterday on Sports Salsa, a popular radio program anchored by foremost sport broadcaster Mitchel Obi on Kennis Fm.

While on air, Dare reeled out some of his achievements, claiming that he changed the narrative of the ministry during his tour of duty.

"My Job is done as sports minister; I have put in my best and I am ready to move on. 

“Nobody would say again that the sport ministry is a child’s play rather, sport in Nigeria now is big business.

"One of the highpoints of my tenure was the reclassification of sports as business and the enactment of the Sports Industry Policy (SIP) which of course, is a major achievement," he said.

Explaining further on SIP, the sports minister added: "Through the SIP, we have been able to put together a document that would in the long term turnaround our sports through private investments.

"In fact, there’s a technical committee put in place by both the Ministry of Finance and that of the Youth and Sport Development to work out how benefits accruable to those who bring investment into sport.

"I believe they should be able to come out with the modalities in the next two weeks about how many years of tax holidays as well as a single digit tax percentage.

"But don’t also forget that the omnibus incentives have already been approved by the Federal Executive Council since November 2, 2022. 

"And they are also going to address the Independent Athletes Welfare Fund which is the first of its kind and they are just going to decide the amount of the seed money that would be put into the project in order to give grants to active athletes as well as support to retired athletes because it has already been approved by the government.”