Prof Folasade Ogunsola, Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos (UNILAG), on Sunday said that the university would set up a sports academy to ensure constant use and maintenance of the various facilities in the school.
Prof. Ogunsola disclosed this to journalists covering the 11th Africa University Games (FASU) being jointly hosted by UNILAG and Lagos State University (LASU).
She said UNILAG had invested hugely in standard sporting facilities and there was the need to maintain them.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports 120 universities in Nigeria and 11 from other countries in Africa are participating in the games.
The opening ceremony of the event was held at the UNILAG Sports Complex on Saturday, Sept. 21.
Nigeria last hosted the games 20 years ago, when the 3rd edition was hosted in 2004 by the the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Bauchi.
The 11th FASU Games featured 17 sports with UNILAG hosting football, cricket, swimming, basketball, handball, and tennis whil the indoor games were being held at LASU Campus.
UNILAG also provided three world -class basketball courts and the school’s swimming pool is the only one in Nigerian with a switch timer.
The world -class swimming pool automatically records the time of a swimmer as soon as he or she dives into the water.
Prof Ogunsola said the creation of the sports academy would help prevent decay of facilities.
“We have mapped out strategy to maintain these facilities because they don’t come cheap at all.
“Apart from the internal arrangement to concession some of the facilities out, we have approved a sports academy for UNILAG.
“There is ongoing work on the site of the sports academy and will be delivered soon.This will ease the burden on the university having to spend much money to maintain the structure.
“We know that cost of maintenance can be high, so there are adequate plans so that whenever we are hosting other competitions we won’t be spending much,”she said.
The Vice-chancellor also said that there would be inter-university collaboration to make effective use of the sports facilities.
“We are also talking to other universities on collaboration to make sure that our facilities are well- maintained and used constantly.
“We have some of the best sports facilities in Nigeria, which are assets to the university and the country.
“We will also welcome other collaborations from private investors to complement what we have at hand,” she said(NAN).
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