By Obaseki Anthony in Benin City on February 15, 2020

The Management of CSED (Community Sport and Educational Development) Initiative has taken a bold to change the Netball landscape in Nigeria for the better.

Netball, a game that is played and enjoyed by more than 20 million girls and women all over the world, as yet to find its footing in Africa’s largest nation.

CSED, as part of its efforts to salvage the game in the country, has just completed the building of an outdoor netball court at the IDP Camp Uhogua in Edo State. The brightly coloured 100ft/50ft netball court is the first netball court to be built from the scratch in Nigeria since the post-Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) era that started in 1986.

Commenting on the ground-breaking development, one of CSED Trustees, Cornelius Ehimiaghe, said recently that he is filled with joy to know that an NGO that operates from the living rooms of their Trustees with no bank account “can take on a big project like this and bring it to a successful completion.”

“Edema Fuludu (CSED National Coordinator) led a team made up mostly of amateur volunteer builders to deliver this project after working hard for eight days,” Ehimiaghe further stated.

Meanwhile, CSED Initiative has concluded plans to invite an INF (International Netball Federation) Instructor, Mary Waya, to come and facilitate a five-day training seminar for Physical Education teachers in Benin City, the Edo State capital. This is going to be the first time in the history of netball in Nigeria that an INF training seminar is going to hold in the country.

CSED will be collaborating with Edo State Ministry of Education, Edo State Sports Commission and Edojobs Agency to train 30 to 35 Games Mistresses, who will be expected to take netball to the nooks and crannies of the state.

Ehimiaghe stated that CSED is going to put in place plans to make netball one of the legacies of Edo State hosting the National Sports Festival in March 2020, “by our taking netball to 120 secondary and primary schools in the state. As well as holding free safeguarding training for Game Masters/Mistresses, Teachers and Sports Administrators, later in the year.”

The successful completion of the training seminar is expected to encourage INF to extend its global development programme to Nigeria before the end of 2020.

Nigeria is currently an associate member of INF, while some other African countries like Ethiopia and Cote d’Ivoire who started playing netball less than ten years ago are now full-fledged members of INF.

•PHOTO: Netball action

Source Daily Sports

Posted February 15, 2020

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