The Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Professor Adamu Ahmed, has assured the Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA) that his school will organise an exciting and successful NUGA Games in 2028.

ABU, at the weekend, got the provisional hosting rights for the 29th NUGA Games scheduled for 2028. The award of the hosting rights was contained in a letter to the Vice-Chancellor, by NUGA’s Acting Secretary-General, Yunusa Bazza, dated December 3, 2025.

It said the hosting right was contingent upon the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). The letter further stated that “NUGA Council would announce the specific dates for the great sporting events in due course.

“By this, the university is empowered to engage with both governmental and non-governmental organizations to build partnerships that would assure the success of the games in 2028”, it added. The letter, according to the NUGA Acting Secretary-General, also granted the university the “green light to commence improvements” on its facilities, both sports-related and otherwise, in preparation for the event.

Expressing joy over the hosting rights, Prof. Ahmed described it as an opportunity to build Nigeria’s economy around sports value chain. In a statement on Friday by the University Director of Public Affairs, Mallam Awwalu Umar, the VC explained that the hosting rights for the NUGA Games aligned with the national policy for the development of next generation of athletes in Nigeria through the university.

He expressed joy for the opportunity to host the games again since the last time it hosted in 2001.

The Vice-Chancellor noted that the development was coming at a time when the university was designated as one of the sports centres of excellence in Nigeria and commended NUGA Council for giving the university another opportunity to host the games and assured that ABU would justify the confidence reposed in it by doing all that was needed to organise the games successfully.