The Chief Executive Officer of Premium Trust Bank Emmanuel Emefienim says the partnership with the AFN is geared towards the discovery of more athletics talents and developing them to became world champions.
Nilayo Sports Management Limited, marketing consultants of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, on Monday announced Premium Trust Bank as the official banking partner of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria.
Emefienim who spoke in a chat with OwoSports in Birmingham said: “It’s a corporate social responsibility (CSR), as the partnership that will help create a platform for the youths to express themselves and enable the AFN to do more for the athletes, especially in the discovery of new talents and supporting them in their training programmes.
“We have seen sports as a very powerful tool that can foster unity in our diversity as a nation. Whatever can be done to support it, will encourage other private players to key into it and tow the path of Premium Trust Bank.
“The time is right for us to discover new talents looking at what Tobi Amusan and others did recently. She broke the world record in the women’s 100m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, United State, and set a new one. Ese Brume did also excel in the women’s long jump, winning a silver.
“We need to unearth some of these talents and the way to do it, is to support the AFN, and the youths and encourage them to discover themselves and make the best of the opportunity available to them.”
On why Premium Trust Bank is into athletics rather than the beautiful game of football.
“A whole lot of people are in football and we want to be different from others as we have more youths keying into the different aspects of athletics, and we think it makes more sense to focus is on athletics and not just football.”
Asked if Premium Trust Bank would sponsor another sport in future. “For now it’s athletics, then let’s see how it goes from there.”
Recall that the deal was concluded five weeks ago, however, Nilayo hesitated to announce it to ensure that there is enough concentration on the Athletics events happening in Oregon, Birmingham and Cali as they are landmark events for Nigerian athletes.