We’ll Not Abandon Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Says Dangote Commends Sports Minister

We’ll Not Abandon Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Says Dangote

Commends Sports Minister

Africa’s richest man and president, Dangote Group of Companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has pledged his commitment to the continued maintenance of the refurbished Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja, saying he will not abandon the facility to collapse.

He gave the assurance on Thursday when he visited the stadium, adopted by him under the ‘Adopt-a-Pitch Initiative’ of the federal government, to see the quality of work done especially the regrassing and installation of state-of-the-art scoreboards.

Dangote commended the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare, and his team for a job well done after he was conducted round the pitch with the sprinklers working perfectly, and the two digital score-boards beaming live.

“I want to assure you that this is just the beginning and we will continue to support sports. As a socially responsible company, I will bring some of my directors to see what you have done so that it will encourage us to do much more than we have done.

“You can be rest assured of our continued support. You can always knock on our doors. We shouldn’t allow our stadium to collapse. Nigerians have a very strong love for sports, so I think we need to complement government’s efforts to ensure that everything works,” Dangote said.

He revealed that the pitch would be maintained for two years at the initial stage but he will not abandon the stadium after the expiration of the maintenance deal.

“For now we signed for two years and after two years we will not abandon the Stadium. This is our country, if we don’t do it, nobody will come and do it for us. We will continue to support sports in Nigeria, especially football,” Dangote added.

For his part, Sports Minister Sunday Dare expressed appreciation to Dangote for accepting to adopt the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, stating that he was the first to embrace the Ministry’s Adopt-a-Pitch initiative.

“I want to thank you for investing in the development of our Sports and the fruit of that partnership has blossomed into what we see here today. I would like to inform you that we have just received CAF certification of this Stadium for international matches, which means that the World Cup qualifiers will be played here. This wouldn’t have been possible without your support,” Dare stated.

The revamped Moshood Abiola National Stadium is complete with nursery beds, two digital score boards, 24 Sprinklers and two-year maintenance, as part of the contract sponsored by Dangote Industries under the Adopt-a-Pitch Public Private Partnership initiative of the Ministry. Daura Stadium in Katsina State has also been completed, while the National Stadium Lagos, amongst others, have been adopted, and are at different stages of completion.