LSSTF to raise N10bn for sports infrastructure, development
Motolani Oseni
The Lagos State Sports Trust Fund, LSSTF, has concluded all plans to raise a total sum of N10 billion to invest in sports infrastructure and development across the state.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Fund, Otumba Femi Pedro, disclosed this in Lagos recently, where he explained that LSSTF would run on public-private participation, PPP, model to deliver the projects and services benchmarking global standards.
He also said the enabling law that set up the Fund provided it with enough autonomy to shield it from government interferences that may undermine its core values.
Government funding of the LSSTF, according to him, is fixed by the enabling law at 10 per cent of funds generated by the State Lottery Board and one per cent of internally generated revenue, IGR, of local governments in the state.
But buttressing the autonomy and private sector orientation of the Fund, Pedro added that the goal of the Board of Trustees is to secure commercial revenues that will limit the proportion of government’s funding against its total revenue to 10 per cent or less.
Abisoye named LSETF’s acting Executive Secretary Consequently, he said the Board has already engaged the corporate Nigeria on how to create value for the private sector participation in the projects and services of the Fund.
He stated: “The central core of our business is fundraising for sports development using the PPP model. Our target funders, apart from government, are sports-focused organizations, other corporate entities, development institutions, faith-based organizations, high net worth individuals, and the general sport loving members of the public.
“Our collaboration and partnership with these entities could be in form of gifts and donations, sponsorship and partnerships, fundraising events, donation of sporting events, media space, etc, branding and naming rights of sports facilities and event venues, sale of sports memorabilia and many more.
“We are committed to ensuring that no less than 10 million Lagosians participate actively in sports. In addition, we plan to deliver at least 10 infrastructure projects annually; develop 10 athletes each from 10 different sports from grassroots to podium, and to train 10 coaches each in different sports annually.”
