Joel Ajayi

The Board of the Nigeria Cricket Federation has approved a quarterly subvention funds for the development of the game across the 36 states of the Federation including the FCT. Grassroots Cricket development is one of the 5 new Key Strategic pillars of development that was proposed by the Board of the NCF when they were inaugurated in October 2021.

This was contained in a statement issued by NCF’s  PRO Musa Ehizoje Bodie on Sunday in Abuja.

 According to the statement, the mandate from the ICC to the Nigeria Cricket Federation is to introduce 250,000 new entrants into the sports annually for which the NCF have fulfilled through her Accelerated Growth Program. 

“The decision to approve the subvention fund was one of the resolutions of the Board during the Annual General Meeting in February 2022. The subvention funds are geared towards complimenting the efforts of the Federation towards achieving the goal of reaching target mark of new entrants and possibly surpassing it.

“For the execution of this program, the budget of Three Million (3,000,000) Naira has been approved with each geo-political zone receiving the sum of Five Hundred Thousand (N500,000) Naira which will be split evenly between 2 states per zone. The program will kick off with the 2 states in a region having the least Cricket development and progress to the other states with a more robust Cricket structure in the next tranche of disbursement. The total number of expected new entrants from the subvention funds is a minimum of 20,000, the North and South of Nigeria estimated to produce 10,000 each.

“According to the approval of the Board the states that will benefit in this phase include; North Central: (Kogi & Niger), North East: (Borno & Bauchi), North West: (Sokoto & Jigawa), South East: (Abia & Enugu), South-South: (Cross Rivers & Bayelsa) and South West: (Osun & Ekiti).

“States that have received the funds are expected to produce minimum of 2000 entrants each, with 12 states selected from the various zone cumulating to a total of 24,000. The program will be executed by the technical staff of the Federation and monitored by the 2 National Development Managers, the 6 Regional development Officers and Field officers that have been deployed to the various states. 

“From the Secretariat through the Geographic Information System (GIS) that allows events to be tracked by specific location and in real time, the NCF Data officer will monitor the program in the various states to ensure compliance. The success of this execution will provide the basis for its review in the future.

“The focus of the Nigeria Cricket Federation to introduce 250,000 new entrants into the sport every year through the Accelerated Growth program remains a key part of grassroots development, the shared ratio in the North and South region and the structure in place will continue with the development staff already engaged for this purpose.”

Meanwhile the Board of the Federation led by President Uyi Akpata is committed to the continued growth and development of the sport in Nigeria.

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