The inaugural Sports Africa Investment Summit, which held in Lagos has set a roadmap for accelerated growth of the continent’s sports sector.
The two-day power packed summit, tagged SAIS2025, gave the participants an opportunity to dialogue and make deals, setting the stage for accelerated investment in African sports.
Themed “Unleashing Africa’s Potential: Investing in Sports Infrastructure for a Sustainable Future,” SAIS 2025 brought together policy makers, investors, and industry leaders to explore transformative strategies that unlock significant opportunities across Africa’s sports ecosystem.
The event, held on February 17 and 18, 2025, was the first-ever investment summit in Africa dedicated to sports and saw the signing of a landmark agreement between Sport Nigeria Ltd and the Abia State government.
A major highlight of the summit was the breakout session titled “National Sports Federations as “Business Drivers” of their Sport- Alignment of interests to facilitate collaborations and partnerships between the private sector and Federations.”
The session brought together key industry experts to discuss strategies for leveraging sports to drive social and economic growth within communities.
Sport Nigeria’s Vice Chairman, Yahaya Maikori, delivered the welcome address, setting the tone for a summit that brought together key stakeholders across sports, business, and governance.
The CEO of Sport Nigeria LTD/GTE, Nkechi Obi, set the agenda for the summit, while the Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Shehu Dikko, delivered the keynote address, entitled: “Sports as a Catalyst for Africa Towards 2063.”
The Summit had three plenary sessions, one fire-side chat and 18 breakout sessions with various engaging topics all focused on how Africa can create a market for sports goods and services, how the ideal products suitable for the market can be developed and how the market creation and product development activities can be funded.
Two major highlights at the summit were the signing of a technical and collaborative agreement between the government of Abia State and Sport Nigeria LTD/GTE for the development of the Abia State Sports Special Economic Zone (#SSEZ), and the presentation of Spaces For Sport (#S4S), Sport Nigeria’s flagship community-based infrastructure project.
The summit also received goodwill messages from the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, Country Manager of Agence Française de Développement, Xavier Muron, and the Minister of Lands, Environment, Forestry, Water, and Mines in Rwanda, Christophe Bazivamo.
Founded in 2021, Sport Nigeria is a private-sector-led agency dedicated to fostering the development of Nigeria’s sports industry. The organization partners with stakeholders to unlock investments, catalyze industrialization, and create opportunities for economic and community growth through sports.
Sport Nigeria also complements government initiatives by driving sustainable industry development across the value chain.
