By Ike Uchechukwu, CALABAR

The Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF) has commended telecommunications giant MTN for its transformative role in discovering and nurturing young athletic talents through the annual MTN Champs competition, crediting the initiative with saving numerous students from societal vices and brightening their futures.

Pastor Emmanuel Ebong, Vice President of the NSSF, gave the commendation during the just-concluded Season 4 of MTN Champs, held at the U.J. Esuene Sports Stadium in Calabar. The event drew over 1,000 athletes from more than 120 schools across Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Abia, and Delta states, featuring competitions in cadet (under-14), youth (under-17), junior (under-20), and senior categories.

Speaking on the sidelines, Pastor Ebong praised MTN for providing a positive, engaging platform that keeps schoolchildren meaningfully occupied.

“MTN has saved a lot of our children both at primary and secondary school levels, lighting up talents and brightening destinies across Nigeria and beyond,” he said. “A lot of children would have been ‘lost’ or caught in many wrongdoings if not for MTN. They have meaningfully engaged young people.”

He highlighted the competition’s long-term impact, noting that talents discovered in earlier seasons have gone on to represent Nigeria internationally, including at the first African School Sports Festival hosted in Nigeria last August, where several MTN Champs alumni won medals.

Ebong revealed that top performers from the first three seasons—30 athletes in total—are groomed at an academy in Lagos, receiving academic and training support. “We are proud of them because they are not doing something that will bring a bad name to NSSF, to the federation, to the country,” he added.

The NSSF Vice President appealed to other corporate organizations to emulate MTN’s investment in school sports, stressing that government alone cannot fund the capital-intensive sector. He called for greater involvement in disciplines such as handball, volleyball, table tennis, swimming, and taekwondo.

“Sport is capital intensive. Government alone cannot run it,” Ebong stated. “We appeal to corporate organizations to come; we have the talents. Tell us what you want, we will give it out to you.”

He urged MTN to sustain the competition, emphasizing its role in producing future Olympians and keeping youths positively engaged.

“If you leave them unoccupied they will find something negative to engage themselves if you don’t engage them positively,” he warned, concluding that continued corporate support is vital to achieving the ultimate goal of developing world-class athletes for Nigeria.