Sports
Quest For Sporting Excellence, Reason For Our support to AFN, Talented Athletes-CEO PremiumTrust Bank
The Chief Executive Officer of PremiumTrust Bank, Mr. Emmanuel Efe Emefienim has identified the thirsty and quest for sporting excellence in the country as the reason why the bank is committed and giving it’s support to Athletic Federation of Nigeria AFN and many talented athletes.
Speaking in Paris, the CEO who is currently at ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics in France alongside sports stakeholders in support of Team Nigeria expressed that, the bank’s unwavering support for Nigeria’s athletes has serves as a beacon of hope, inspiring youths, and aspiring sportsmen to pursue their sporting dream
According to him, we the sponsors to the athletic Federation of Nigeria, we had 3 years sponsorship arrangement with them, which has been on since 2022.
“Basically it’s all about providing the needed support for AFN to help the athletes prepare them for competitions and also ake them contribute immensely to our success in international outing.
“We sees it as a platform to empower to ensuring that they get the best of training, to get the best of support and to be well prepared for games like this, that why we extended that to signing two of them as brand ambassadors Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume.
“And we are very hopeful that in these Olympics, they’ll come back home with medals.
“You know, we’ve provided funds for their training programs, We monitored, how they felt. So that is exactly what we done for athletics Federation of Nigeria in the past two to three years.
“These athletes or sport men and women they need money for their training, they need to prepare themselves for competitions.
“They need to look at the people they compete with, So we want to see how we provide that platform so that our athletes, our sportsmen and women would be able to compete at the highest level. It’s so important so they can prepare themselves outside what the government is able to provide for them.
“And it has really worked for Tobi Amusan, It has worked for Ese Brume you can see that in preparing for these games, they’ve not been under serious pressure. We’ve been able to provide you know, that platform for them. And now, we hope to do more for many Nigerians.”
When asked the wort of the deal with AFN, for the sponsorship? He replied: “the sum of 100 million spread over three years which is what we’ve been consistent.”
However, CEO is optimistic that Team Nigeria at the ongoing 2024 Olympics will win medal.
Sports
Plateau Vipers, Benue Queens Crowned Champions at HFN North Central Division One Tourney
Joel Ajayi
The President of the Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN), Jibril Seidu, has said the federation will continue to intensify its grassroots talent development drive through zonal competitions across the country.
Seidu stated this on Saturday in Abuja at the finals of the 2026 North Central Division One Handball Championship, where Plateau Vipers defeated Suleja Shooters 29-24 to emerge champions in the men’s category.
In the women’s final, Benue Queens of Makurdi defeated City Queens of Suleja to claim the title.
The eight-day tournament featured teams from across the North Central Zone, with Plateau Vipers of Jos, Confluence Stars of Lokoja, Unity Boys of Abuja, Suleja Shooters and Nasarawa Ambassadors of Lafia competing in the men’s category.
In the women’s category, Nuela Handball Academy of Ilorin, Inikpi Babes of Idah, Benue Queens of Makurdi and City Queens of Suleja competed for honours.
At the end of the competition, four teams — two male and two female — emerged as the North Central Zone’s representatives for the national Division One league.
According to Seidu, the tournament was organised as part of the federation’s deliberate strategy to take handball development back to the regions and discover talents that might otherwise remain unnoticed.
He said the HFN board, inaugurated on October 25, 2025, resolved that grassroots development was essential to creating a sustainable pipeline of players for national and international competitions.
“All the teams you have seen here are from the North Central Zone of the country, and every state is represented with an academy or state team,” he said.
Seidu explained that the new approach marked a departure from the previous system, where talent identification was largely centred on the federation’s major league competitions.
He said taking competitions to the regions would provide young players with greater opportunities to showcase their abilities while strengthening the foundation of handball across the country.
The HFN president also linked the grassroots initiative to Nigeria’s recent achievements in international handball, stressing the need to develop younger players who can eventually replace members of the current national teams.
He noted that Nigeria had qualified for the 2027 Men’s Junior Handball World Championship in North Macedonia, describing the achievement as evidence of the potential within the country’s handball system.
“How do we replace these players with upcoming players? This is the avenue for us to get players,” he said.
Seidu added that the federation was determined to make handball more visible and accessible, describing it as one of Nigeria’s major sporting disciplines with significant potential for growth.
The North Central tournament is part of a wider zonal programme designed to decentralise handball development across Nigeria.
According to the federation, similar competitions are being organised across other zones, including the South East, North East, North West and South South, with qualifiers from each zone expected to converge at a designated venue for the next stage of the competition.
The federation also appealed for greater support from sponsors, stakeholders and state associations to sustain its grassroots development programme.
It expressed appreciation to the participating states, academies, team sponsors and other stakeholders for their support and commitment to the growth of handball in Nigeria.
The federation said the initiative would provide a platform for discovering the next generation of Nigerian handball stars while expanding the sport’s reach beyond its traditional centres.
While Speaking the elated coach of Benue Queen Godwin Tondo has promised a stronger and more tactical performance after guiding the team to victory at the 2026 North Central Division One Handball Championship in Abuja.
He attributed the success to the team’s long-term youth development programme, noting that the squad was built through a deliberate process of identifying and nurturing young talents.
According to him, the programme began with the selection of 92 girls from secondary schools, who were subsequently trained and developed over a four-year period.
He said the team’s success was a product of sustained hard work and commitment despite the challenges encountered during preparations for the tournament.
“I feel very pleased being a champion today. The road to this stage was very, very hard, but I am very happy that we have got the result from all the toughness of the game,” he said.
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