Investment in refreshal training of coaches, efficient player welfare, mutually beneficial partnership with corporate bodies and the right government policies on sport are the ingredients which will help to make handball in Nigeria develop into successful enterprise and a podium sport amongst all sports.
This was the resolution derived on Day 2 of the HFN Webinar/Online Conference on handball development in Nigeria which is in celebration of the IHF International Handball Week.
The speaker of the day 2 event Mr. Pedro Godinho who is the President of the Angola Handball Federation and the second vice President of the Confederation of Africa Handball (CAHB), speaking on the topic “How to develop the game of Handball in a country and making it a podium sport: The Angolan Experience”, laid emphasis on deliberate and effective sport structure as the foundation for the success of any sport.
Mr. Godinho who spoke in English and French where he is more proficient, said the reason handball is big in Angola is that the government created an enabling environment for sports including handball to thrive and that conscious effort was done to ensure the growth of handball in the grassroot.
For him until the authorities sees sport as a business where everything is encompassing including but not limited to a seemless relationship and collaboration between the federation and sports ministry, insurance for players and welfare packages in different form, then handball may have it difficult to be a podium sport in Nigeria.
Mr. Godinho praised president of Handball Federation of Nigeria Mr. Samuel Ocheho for trying to recreate the glory days of Nigeria in the continent and advised him to engage widely with stakeholders.
