President Goodluck Jonathan has made available “about four billion naira” to the National Sports Commission (NSC) for the preparation and participation of Nigeria in international tournaments within the year.

The Director-General of the NSC, Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye revealed this while speaking to journalists at the Abuja National Stadium on Thursday.

“The president has been quite understanding. We have a very big support from Mr. President and that is what we are going to use for the Games. He (President Jonathan) gave us a very big relief by granting us money for
the Games. We have a special fund approved by Mr. President for us to prosecute all these Games. It’s about four billion (Naira).”

While revealing that the fund does not cover preparations for the FIFA World Cup, Hon. Elegbeleye said the money is meant to prosecute: “Commonwealth Games, Africa Youth Games, Youth Olympics and the ECOWAS
Games.”

The Commonwealth Games will start from 23 July to 3 August 2014 in Scotland while the Youth Olympic Games is scheduled to hold between 16th and 28th August 2014 in Nanjing, China. Also, the 2nd African Youth Gamesn as well as ECOWAS Games will take place in Gaborone, Botswana's capital City from 22nd to 31st May 2014 and July 2014 in Ivory Coast respectively.

He continued: “We are in camp. The Athletics Federation (of Nigeria) are in camp, the wrestlers just left camp for a competition in South Africa, shooting federation are in camp (too).”

The Director-General who noted that preparations were in top gear ahead of the Games, said other federations just left camp for competitions and will return to camp afterwards.

He assured that despite the delay in budget passage, there were funds for the teams to prepare and participate in upcoming competitions.

While revealing that there is an allocation for the World Cup in the 2014 budget, Hon. Elegbeleye assured that there would also be grants to support the team.