Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN,  technical director, Omatsheye Nesiama has said that the federation will need as much as eight million pounds (about N2.02b) to prepare Nigeria’s athletes for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Nesiama, a Navy Captain was speaking during the three-day Athletics coaches’ forum and clinic organised by the AFN as part of its ‘Project Rio 2016’ programme last week.

He said that this sum will be used to modernise the Port Harcourt High Performance Centre, which has been approved by the world athletics ruling body, IAAF and also to put Nigerian elite athletes at podium performance level.

He added that the AFN is proposing this project in line with directives by Sports Minister, Bolaji Abudulahi to all federations to develop a programme that will see Nigeria winning medals at the next Olympics.

“We are looking up to the NSC to provide funds for the High Performance Centre to take off. Though we have some facilities on the ground at the University of Port Harcourt, we still need five to eight million pounds to get the programme going,” said the widely read and traveled Navy captain.

He stated that there was need for Nigeria to do a rethink and plan for the future after the disappointment of the London 2012 Olympics.

“If we were to be truthful to ourselves you will agree with me that we don’t deserve a medal at the London 2012 Games. We must have to start something now and that is why we are training our coaches and getting them ready for the challenge ahead.

And if we are able to get this project going by the 2015 world championships in Beijing, China, we should get podium performances. Otherwise we might just forget about Rio 2016,” he stressed.

He stressed that the target of the Rio 2016 project will be to identify athletics talents, select, nurture and expose them, adding that elite athletes’ training programme will also be funded, while coaches and administrators will be trained and updated.