Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) President, Dr Adesoji Tayo, has urged the federal government to give sports federations the concession to bring in their equipment into the country free as part of efforts to aid sports development.

Specifically, Tayo said that many federations have their equipment sitting at the ports because they don’t have the money to clear them.

Speaking at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, where the NTTF hosted the 2026 WTT Contender Lagos, over the weekend, Tayo said the high cost of clearing imported sports equipment has denied Nigerian athletes the opportunity to train with world-standard equipment, which in effect hinders their performance in international championships.

“Most of the equipment we use in table tennis are imported from either China or Germany. These include the floor, table tennis boards, the surround, communication equipment, umpire’s chairs, umpire’s tables, and the lights. And then we have, of course, the kits, the national team kits, the t-shirts, the polo, the winter jackets, the shoes, and the socks.

“So, when they arrive at the ports, it will surprise you that we pay for everything, including clearing. We are forced to pay for these things even when we show them at the ports that these are sports equipment meant for the country, with Nigeria written on all of them.”

“So we are imploring the federal government to allow sports equipment to come in without these huge fees.

“If some people have been nice enough to purchase equipment for Nigeria, how come we have to start looking for money to clear them? It’s really demoralising. It’s a thing we are not happy about at all.”

Using the just-concluded WTT Contender Lagos to buttress his points, Tayo said: “We paid to get this surround given to us by the ITTF to this place. The umpire’s table and the chair are from ITTF to support us because we are hosting a WTT event.

“We still have some equipment at the ports as I speak to you. They have been there for almost one year now. Initially, we thought that the National Sports Commission (NSC) could help us get them out of the ports, but we have not been successful.

“The table tennis equipment is very fragile, and after one year, we don’t know what they will look like now. One competition table tennis now costs about N6 million, and for the WTT alone, we are using 16 of them. There are so many other things involved in hosting a championship like this, which cost a lot of money. So it’s a lot of money that we are just keeping at the ports.”

The NTTF president said that the federation paid N30 million to clear the floor used at the WTT Contender Lagos, adding that the availability of the top facilities is part of the reasons Nigeria is one of the only two African countries hosting the WTT Series. He added: “Without this floor, no player will come from anywhere to play in Nigeria.”

Tayo urged the Federal Government to allow federations to bring in sports equipment without paying the fees demanded by the Customs, especially since the equipment are gifts from foreign bodies and individuals.

He said: “It would be demoralising to even tell someone who helped us to buy this thing that we cannot clear it because we cannot afford the amount they are asking us to pay. We need the government to work with us and help us to bring all these equipment in.

“We have a lot of talent in this country, but we can’t take them to the next level, to turn them into elite players. That’s why we are urging the federal government to help us.”