The Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalong, on Tuesday said the Federal Government can’t continue to fund the management of sports facilities in the country with the current economic hardship in the land.
He made the remark while speaking with State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.
According to him, the government would rather give management of sports facilities in Abuja and Lagos to private management.
He said: “I agree that there is under utilization of sports facilities in Abuja. That has taken us to the issue of concession.
“The facilities can’t be managed effectively by government looking at the budgetary allocation for even the maintenance.
“Government can’t maintain those things. So what we intend to do is to proceed with the concession process which we met on ground.”
He said the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has already approved the concession process.
“FEC in 2012 had approved concession of Abuja and Lagos stadiums. We have proceeded with it and even appointed consultants.
“We are at the stage of getting the approval of BPE, from there we can now proceed to call for bids and engage the private sector so that we can run the concession arrangement with them,” the minister added.