Youth And Sports Ministry To Launch E-Sports And Gaming Soon
Oru Leonard
The Ministry in its drive to elevate Sports into business through the proposed Sports Industry Policy, has concluded plans to launch E-Sports and Gaming, considering its suitability for the Post-Covid 19 era. E- Sports and Gaming is a 138 billion dollars Business with potential benefits for our sportsmen and women, the Youth and Sports Minister, Mr Sunday Dare stated.
In a release made available to News Dot Africa on Thursday, the Minister while speaking during a WEBINAR on COVID-19 Era & Beyond: Impact & Opportunities for Youth Development, organised by the Ministry; Mr Dare said ” youths form the bulk of active sportsmen and women…we are working on a plan that would produce for the first time an Industry based Sports Policy that would turn Sports into Business”.
He also revealed in the course of his keynote address that ” we are on the verge of launching E-Gaming Sports in Nigeria.It us the most suitable for the post- COVID era. Globally, it is a 138 billion Dollars business. We also plan to develop the Mambilla Plateau area to turn it to a Training ground for our long distance runners who are mostly from the North.
This is necessary and important considering that long- distance race is an individual, none contact sport that would likely resume as soon as the impact of the covid-19 winds down”.
It is pertinent to state that amongst the myriads of initiatives implemented by the Ministry for the benefits of the youths is to innovate and explore digital skills Programme, according to the Minister.
”we have a Programme for IBM certification called Digital Nation. So far the Ministry has trained over 8000 youths Online in digital skills and certified them through IBM. It is part of our flagship digital skills training programme called DY.ng, which is an acronym for Digital Skills Nigeria. Similarly, we have held six digital skills webinar like this one, that is Virtual Lectures for Youth Online with over 3000 participating every week collectively ..”
