South African firm pledges support for Nigerian Rugby

A South African consortium has pledged to support the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation (NRFF) in the development of the sport in the country.

Thabo Kubu, Chairman, Africa Sports Connect, disclosed this shortly after inspecting the rugby pitch at the package B of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.

He said the South African company had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NRRF in the area of private funding and technical expertise for the development of the sport.

Kubu said Nigeria is blessed with talents but a lot should be done to bring in private sponsorship and standard facilities across the country.

“One of the biggest challenge to Rugby in Nigeria is funding, government has contributed a lot but the private sector must help in terms of working with civil society and the federation to see to the sustenance of the game.

”The MoUs on the table is to help promote, develop and explore areas of funding for the sport.

“We are known to bring technical expertise from south Africa and you would agree with me that in South Africa, the private sector is at helms of the development of rugby,” he said.

Earlier, Ademola Are, President, NRFF, said the partnership was part of efforts to give rugby a new face in Nigeria, in line with international best practices.

He said the NRRF would continue to collaborate with relevant local and international stakeholders to develop the sport in Nigeria.

“We are looking at how we can improve our grassroots programme, rugby series, the rugby league, tertiary institution games and that is why we are partnering with the South Africans.

“You know South Africans are one of the best when it comes to Rugby, so we will be having series of robust meetings,” he said.

South Africa hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, they were champions again in 2007 (France) and 2019 (Japan).

Courtesy: NAN