The Nigeria Football Fund (TNFF) is an open-ended Security and Exchange Commission-Registered Unit Trust/Mutual Fund with an initial public offering to raise N5billion through the issuance of 5,000,000,000 units at N1.00 each.

The fund was launched by GTI Asset Management & Trust Limited on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, for the purpose of offering sustainable solutions to the challenges hindering the growth and advancement of football in Nigeria by focusing on sports development.

Biztellers reports that presently, the TNFF is the catalyst energising the transformation of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL).

Recall that the organisation of the NPFL was fraught with several challenges, topmost among them being the issue of poor funding which the TNFF is poised to breathe in a new lease of life into in a sustainable manner.

It is noteworthy that the TNFF also invests in high-quality investment-grade instruments involving equities of quoted companies, money market or fixed-income instruments, and strategic investment in football/sports sector via securitized lending investments in identified short to medium-term “Football Projects.”

The Fund also aims to transform football clubs from socio-political tools to profitable business enterprises and by extension, with the hope of seeing them grow into national assets. This way Nigeria’s football assets would start contributing to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

As noted earlier, TNFF will promote investment culture among participants in the sports industry with an opportunity to earn returns from investment-grade instruments involving equities of quoted companies, sovereign and corporate short/long-term debt obligations and securitized lending investments in identified short to medium-term “Football Projects.”

The multiplier effects of building a “Football Economy” is extremely huge, as an improved football sector will drive a cycle of growth (value-chain effects) across several other sectors like Tourism, Broadcasting, Technology, Gaming, Media, Hospitality, Transportation, Merchandising etc.

The impact of these is expected to manifest in the following areas; increased economic activities, increase in employment opportunities, rise in disposable income, significant contribution to the GDP and a general increase in demand for the products, goods and services produced by Nigerian corporate/manufacturing companies.

The Fund which is currently managed by GTI Asset Management & Trust Limited has the following under-listed objectives.

It will help the government to use football to manage social vices, especially among the teaming idle youths. Most of the youths would be kept busy through sporting activities and will not fancy indulging themselves in criminal activities if left unchecked.

Therefore, an improved football economy could easily enhance national development as the beautiful game in turn becomes an easy tool or a veritable source of revenue for the government.

In addition, the TNFF will help to enhance national savings culture and stimulate the financial inclusion agenda of the federal government.

Those versed in sports business are of the opinion that the TNFF has the potential of deepening Nigeria’s economy, creatively, in the areas of production and distribution of cultural goods to support the football industry for great economic impact.

The positive spill-over effect on the development of the tourism sector can be heartwarming because of its positive impact on hotel occupancy rates, pundits aver.

Aside from enhanced foreign exchange earnings, which the TNFF will bring to the table through foreign television broadcasting rights, infrastructural development; the fund has demonstrated the capacity to convert the interests of mammoth Nigerian fans into commercial success and sustainable growth, development economists opine.