The National Sports Authority (NSA) on Thursday, June 20, 2024, brought together eighty sports stakeholders in an effort to institutionalise the National Sports Development Fund.
The meeting, held at the City Hall View, aimed to tap from the invaluable contributions from individuals from 61 sporting organizations.
Highlights to the draft statutory instrument relate to its governance structure, revenue, eligibility, institutional roles and responsibilities, among others.
Since President Bio launched the National Sports Basket Fund on December 10, 2021, and donated Le10 billion to the initiative, two good years have elapsed.
The engagement is a deliberate stride to revive the Fund by formulating strategies through which it can live to support sport development.
At the meeting, the Executive Director of NSA, Dr Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai Esq, said the NSA has developed the regulations for the conduct of the Sports Development Foundation for which the stakeholders should establish the institutional framework through expert contributions. “In the coming weeks, we are going to engage you again for your varied contributions to the Anti-doping and Court of Arbitration instruments to take sports to prosperous heights,” he said.
On the need to thrive beyond the current space, Dr. Abdulai called on sporting organizations to stop the internal fights and work towards concrete development. “This is not business as usual. You have six months to put your houses in order. By next year, any sporting discipline that fails to meet our established benchmarks will be starved from benefiting from Government support,” he pointed out, adding that he wants to see the growth of all sporting organizations.
Speaking about the authority, Dr. Abdulai said the NSA is the only body that has the power to enable sporting organizations to exist.
On his part, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Sports Oversight Committee, Hon. Hindolo Mohamed Ngevao, thanked Dr. Abdulai for bringing good omen to sports development. “I am satisfied with the way the new NSA Executive Director expended government money. Our responsibility is to supervise government expenditures,” he said, stating that sport brings people together and has the power to control human nerves.
New NSA Board Chairman, Ibrahim Nyelenkeh, congratulated Dr. Abdulai for the envied feat. He shed light on the significance of the Sport Fund and its revealing qualities to performing sports organizations.
Minister of Sports, Madam Augusta James-Teima, said sport is no longer a dustbin or a place full of the uneducated. “Serious people are now running sports,” she said, telling stakeholders present that her Ministry will work with all to push sports development forward with the Development Fund in mind.
“The Ministry of Sports and the NSA are working together. We consult each other in order to deliver sports for the people of Sierra Leone,” she said, declaring the meeting open.