On Wednesday, the Nigeria Olympic Committee officially opened the Olympafrica Centre in Amuwo Odofin, Lagos, and began construction on the Olympic Estate, a residential development project that would occupy the same 6.7-hectare property that the Lagos State Government gave the NOC in 1990, according to The PUNCH.
While the groundbreaking ceremony signaled the beginning of a project that successive NOC administrations had pursued unsuccessfully for nearly forty years, the commissioning, conducted by National Sports Commission Chairman Shehu Dikko, marked the official opening of a facility that has long served the youth of Amuwo Odofin informally.
A refurbished cultural center, a multipurpose plateau, a covered spectators’ pavilion, new changing rooms and amenities, a security station, and a borehole with overhead tanks were among the facilities put into service that day. The rebuilding of the football field and an eight-lane athletics track is still in progress.
The land has been under the committee’s care since it was given by the Lagos State Government, according to NOC President Habu Gumel, but financial and environmental issues have long postponed its complete development.
Successive NOC administrations have unable to find trustworthy developers to develop the area over the past few decades. The teeming young people of Amuwo Odofin have always had access to this center, despite financial and environmental obstacles, he noted.
Gumel clarified that the NOC had split the property in half, with 60% set aside for the Olympic Estate, a build-and-sell residential complex with integrated sports facilities, and 40% devoted to sports through the Olympafrica Centre.
About The Author
