GTI Asset Management and Trust Limited, through The Nigerian Football Fund (TNFF) is on track to take the country’s professional football to the next level while bringing returns for investors.
The N5billion Nigeria Football Fund is an open-ended SEC-Registered Unit Trust/Mutual Fund with an initial public offering to raise N5billion through the issuance of 5billion units at N1 per unit.
It is a Fund launched by GTI Asset Management & Trust Limited to provide sustainable solutions to the challenges hindering the growth and advancement of football in Nigeria by focusing on the development of the Nigeria Professional Football League Clubs. The Fund seeks to build a strong economy on the wings of football.
Nelson Ine, project director, TNFF said during a media interaction with senior journalists and sports leaders in Lagos that the major issue crippling Nigeria’s sports ecosystem is wrong orientation and the idea that professional football should be run and managed only by the government.
“The problem in Nigeria today is that they merge professional sports with amateur sports. When we run sports and look up to the government, that is where the problem starts. It should be run like a business. Professional sports have all it takes to bring revenue. It does not need a government to survive,” Ine said.
According to Ine, GTI partnership with Nigeria Professional League (NPL) will ensure that the Nigerian Professional League starts working effectively, bringing returns on investment, creating job opportunities for Nigerians, taking talents to global heights and putting Nigeria football on international spotlight.
While citing Nigerian entertainment industry which has gone international to the point of winning Grammy awards, he stated that the NPL is equal to the task if managed properly.
He said, “The Nigerian music industry has done it so well that they have produced Grammy award winners, why can’t we produce best players.
“The foreign investors are waiting for us but we must put the right structures in place to attract them. If we put the right structure in place, they will come and invest. We must begin to think and change our mindset.”
He said that sports contribution to Nigeria’s GDP is almost insignificant but with the funding and appropriate management, it is positioned to bring significant growth to GDP.
“If we package our league. Treat our talents well, then we will get value. We are burden bearers of Nigerian football at the moment.”
Abubakar Lawal, group managing director, GTI stated that the company is convinced that nobody will build Nigeria outside of Nigeria. He urged Nigerians to tap into the investment and be part of the great change set to be witnessed in the Nigerian sport ecosystem.
“We have to work together to make this national project work. We are currently engaging with FIFA for endorsement. We are also selling the project to other nations and this would put Nigeria on the global map to say it is possible to achieve some significant level of development in the nation’s sport sector,” Lawal said.
According to him, the TNFF project is beyond the funds. The fund is just an enabler. The English Premier League is owned by a few people but we have opened up the NPL for everyone and will sell the product to other African countries.
The GMD said in the next five years, the Nigerian Professional Football will be the highest yielding fund in the Nigerian capital market.
TNFF shall be investing in high-quality investment-grade instruments involving equities of quoted companies, money market or fixed income instruments, and strategic investment in football/sports sector via securitised lending investments in identified short to medium term “football projects.”
The Nigeria Football Fund seeks to build a “Football Economy” within the Nigeria sports ecosystem. The fund is packaged to provide sustainable solutions bedevilling the development of Nigeria football with focus on the Nigeria Professional Football League Clubs.
The fund aims to transform football clubs from socio-political tools to profitable business enterprises and by extension, a national asset; contributing a significant percentage of the Nigeria Gross Domestic Products.
The fund will promote investment culture among participants in the industry with an opportunity to earn returns from investing in investment-grade instruments involving equities of quoted companies, sovereign and corporate short/long term debt obligations and securitized lending investments in identified short to medium term “football projects.”
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