The Covid-19 has been the hottest subject and major scare for the world in the last century. World powers, have been silenced, powerful leaders have been brought to their knees, the best medicine and medical practices have been kept in a state of perpetual shock and confusion, Religion don’t seem to matter anymore, sports and entertainment have become a recent history and above all, human kind is beginning to understand what is most important in life.
Regardless of this strange situation, The Nigeria Cricket Federation has set out strategies to continue the administration of the sport in Nigeria during and post Covid-19. Most recently, the Federation successfully conducted a 3 day webinar on capacity development for players, staff, stake holders and fans of the game. The webinar took place from the 15th -17th May 2020. The event had notable speakers from different works of life delivering various topics.
Speakers included;
- Yahaya Ukwenya (President, Nigeria Cricket Federation)
- Uyi Akpata (Vice President of the Federation)
- Seun Odeku (Associate Director with KPMG)
- Samuel Emehelu (Renowned Journalist and sports marketer)
- Olumide Akintokun (Banker, Speaker and Writer)
- Endurance Ofem (Players Representative, N.C.F Board)
- Charles Omoera (CEO STANBIC IBTC Trustees)
- Seun Obatuyi (ICT Consultant and CEO SeamlessHR)
Day 1 of the webinar kicked-off by the Vice President of the Federation Mr. Uyi Akpata who gave an insight on what to expect in three days schedule and also briefed the participants on the importance of the Webinar.
The first Speaker Mr. Sam Emehelu who is the Executive Director of Fairstrokes Digital, a leading PR and Marketing firm in Nigeria spoke for about 40 minutes on Personal Branding and Sports Marketing.
A twelve slide PowerPoint presentation enlightened participants on the importance of personal and cooperate branding, while encouraging everyone involved with the Nigeria Cricket Federation on the need to be worthy ambassadors on and off the field as it promotes or negates the NCF BRAND.
The use of Social Media in Sports Marketing has become highly significant, hence the need for NCF to key into this to promote our brand, players, activities in a bid to reach out to millions around the world with a click of a button and attract potential sponsors. He concluded by urging everyone to get involved and play his or her part in promoting and marketing the NCF BRAND with simple uploads, retweets, likes, comments, trends across the various social media platforms.
Feedback in form of questions and contributions were received from participant and was meticulously answered by Mr. Sam Emehelu, speaker for the session.
Vice President of the Federation Mr. Uyi Akpata ended the session for day 1.
The second day saw an improved number of participants due to the ripples effect from day one. 3 sessions were scheduled for the day with 3 various speakers taking 3 very important topics.
Charles Omoera, CEO of Stanbic IBTC Trustees, a seasoned and thorough Financial Expert started off the session by speaking on Financial Planning where he centered on Savings and Investment.
The forty five minutes session enlightened participants on the importance of financial discipline and purpose to ensure a healthy savings culture. He shared extensively the importance of investment, giving participants ideas and platforms on where and how to invest. He ended his session by emphasizing the need for us to live within our means and cultivate the habit of determining ‘’what we need against what we want’’
Seun Odeku, a Forensic Auditor, Cricketer and also an Associate Director at KPMG Nigeria, spoke on Leadership and Personal Development. The seven slides presentation was elaborate enough to open up the minds of participants to discovering the subject matter.
In his session, Seun also emphasized on Discipline quoting that “the pain of discipline is nothing compared to the pain of disappointment” as being an exemplary leader means first leading oneself.
Lectures on Day 3 resumed with the topic Maximizing Talent and was facilitated by a young multitalented individual, Mr. Olumide Akintokun who is a Banker, Farmer, Cricketer, Swim Coach, Public Speaker, Writer, Content Creator amongst others. He exposed participants to discovering, nurturing and building talents to a maximum use for the good self and the society at large.
Mr Seun Obatuyi was next to deliver his paper which was titled Career path in Technology. He carefully analyzed the various aspects of I.C.T and guiding participants on areas where they could develop interest and flourish. He also talked about understanding other discipline that can work directly with I.C.T, like Human resource management and the likes.
The last paper to round up the webinar was delivered by Mr. Endurance Ofem, Player’s representative on the board of the N.C.F. He spoke on the topic ‘’Career path in Cricket’’ where he explained the various unlimited opportunities that abound in the sport especially with the growth rate in Nigeria. He encouraged people to get involved in every aspect and identify areas where there are greater demands in the sport. Finally, he urged ex-players of the game to channel their voluntary service to the overall development of the game.
The President of the Federation Prof. Yahaya Adam Ukwenya, drew the curtains on the Webinar, expressing his delight at the turn out of participant’s and the unity displayed by all that were involved. He thanked the various speakers for taking out time to impact everyone and finally made some juicy revelations on some of the plans of the board post Covid-19. The Webinar was Facilitated by Mr. Richson Tetteh and anchored by Mr. Tayo Sowole (Secretary CCC League Lagos).
Despite the challenges faced with the Online App, participants from around the world (Nigeria, India, South Africa, Rwanda, Ghana) kept logging back in as they could not get enough of the sessions.