The Director General of the National
Sports Commission, NSC, Hon. Bukola Olopade says Nigeria winning the rights to host the 2028 ITTF Table Tennis Championships is another major gain of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope mandate for Nigerian Sports.
At the African Table Tennis federation’s Annual General meeting in Morocco, Nigeria beat Tunisia to the hosting rights with a total of 23 votes as against its 15 votes.
Nigeria was also awarded the hosting rights for the 2027 Africa Para Table tennis championship as the AGM announced host countries for its 2027 and 2028 senior and youth tournaments.
The NSC DG said this is not only a major development for Nigerian sports but a clear testament to the renewed confidence the international sporting community is having in Nigeria as an emerging sports destination.
“ This was one of the clear mandates Mr President gave to Mallam Shehu Dikko and I when he appointed us to revamp the country’s Sports landscape- to make Nigeria more attractive as an international Sports destination”.
And one of the pillars of our Renewed Hope initiative for Nigerian Sports Economy( RHINSE ) agenda , is concentrating on Sports Production, which is the hosting of major international competitions rather than only Sports consumption.
“ We have been able to stage several international sporting competitions and events in the last two years in Lagos , Abuja , Abeokuta and Abia state which have empirically grown the Sports economy drive of the country and contributing to the GDP”.
The NSC DG has however assured the international table tennis federation, ITTF and the entire continent of a world class organization of the championship with a clear desire to make the tournament a reference point for future competitions.
Nigeria is currently preparing to host this year’s Caf Congress in Abuja and the Caf Awards in Lagos.
