Is Nigeria maximising the use of technology to advance sports?

A reflection on the Nigerian sports sector, some fundamental challenges and suggested technological solutions. And examples of sport-tech in Nigeria and technologies that could benefit the industry.

The sports sector in Nigeria is one of the leading sports sectors all over Africa. This is mainly due to Nigerian athletes’ sporting skills and individual brilliance. As reported by AllAfrica, an African news aggregation website, in 2020, the then Statistician-general of the federation, Yemi Kale, said, “Sports is valued at $500 billion globally. However, the sector accounts for 0.005 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP, which is not good enough”. In the same report, the Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, said, “the sports industry can deliver N2 trillion revenue in the next 5 to 10 years for Nigeria, and this can help to drive the largest real estate and infrastructure development in the country; however, it will require $500 million annual investment in sports infrastructure.”

According to the 2012 study of the Contribution of Sports to Economic Growth and Employment in the European Union, sports is a labour-intensive growth industry and an important economic sector. It was reported by the study that sports contributed 294.36 billion Euros to the European economy in 2012. The above shows the sports sector’s immense and vastly untapped economic potential, and Nigeria can significantly benefit from this. What do the Europeans have in their sports sector that Nigerians are not utilising fully? Technology.

Some fundamental challenges and suggested technological solutions.

The Nigerian sports sector has not grown like the sports sectors of Europe and America because we are still lacking technologically in a couple of significant areas. The key areas where we are being held back include:

1. Maladministration and Corruption: In the Nigerian sports scene, especially in the Nigerian Professional football League, the male and female national football teams, basketball teams and even the Olympic teams. There have been a lot of situations where athletes and their trainers or coaches have come out to say that they are being owed allowances and salaries or that they are stranded, and without uniforms and kits they need to perform. The funds are usually available, but administrators would rather keep the monies. This would not be a problem with technology, especially blockchain technology, as it would be easier to track finances. Administrators are encouraged to adopt fintech to make the finances and administration of sports in Nigeria transparent.
2. Medical technology and data management: A significant challenge is athletes’ false age declarations and incorrect medical history. Unlike our European counterparts, Nigeria isn’t equipped with the medical and technological infrastructure to keep a well-documented history of medical records for athletes. This situation has made it possible for many athletes to falsify their ages and hide medical details, including injuries. While this might work in their favour in the age-grade competitions/events in the short term, it usually comes back to work against them and the country, especially with bans, disqualifications, and fines. If there is proper data management technology, it will become impossible for certain athletes to cheat the system.
3. Fans involvement: what is a sport without the involvement of fans? Nigeria sports can get a boost when the fans are systematically organised, targeted and engaged. For example, in the Nigerian Professional Football League, clubs are not active on social media platforms. Involvement on social media platforms is one way through which fans can be involved in the activities of their clubs. Clubs need to embrace digital media to distribute their content and keep their fans engaged while growing their fanbase. This is also a way for clubs to generate revenue.

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Example budding sport-tech in Nigeria

While it might seem like there aren’t any or a lot of strides made in the area of technological development in sports in Nigeria, there have been developments. Some of them are:

1. The JJC app: At the 2022 NUGA games, several tech start-ups with their innovations were represented at the event. One of them was The JJC app, a navigation app used as the official navigation guide for NUGA 2022 and assisted athletes in finding their way around.
2. The NPFL.TV: To boost the viewership of the Nigerian Professional Football league (NPFL), the League management company (LMC) created a live streaming platform for all the games called NPFL.TV. The NPFL.TV is an app that lets its users watch all their favourite Nigerian league matches for as low as ₦1,500. The app is available for download on Google Playstore.
3. AMPZ mobile app: According to a 2019 report by The Guardian Nigeria, titled: “AMPZ mobile app to connect 5000 African talents to a world of opportunities”, AMPZ; a Sports tech start-up, announced that it was launching a sports talent mobile app and also awarding sports scholarships to 16 young talents. The AMPZ mobile app allows sports talents to profile themselves, share their data, upload their content, and connect to verified opportunities and scouts. With this solution, AMPZ hopes to usher the African sports ecosystem into a new era using technology. The mobile app is available for download on the Google Play Store.
4. Tech Infused “LIV (54)” Footwear: As reported by Tech Economy in 2018, AFA Sports, one of the leading sports merchandise manufacturers on the continent, launched the first Active footwear in Africa designed and engineered in Nigeria. The LIV 54 include Contoured Traction Grip (CTG) technology with advanced arch support and a rubber outsole borrowed from the multi-movement patterns of the Sahara desert. A micro-mesh knit gives the shoe comfort and breathability in warm climates—multi gel areas for force deflections.

Technologies that could benefit the sector

1. Instant Replay: A major complaint by followers of the Nigerian Professional Football league is the officiating. Fans are usually of the opinion that wrong calls are made. Instant replay would hugely benefit the League and help increase the followership and fan engagement. With instant replay technology, officials can re-examine what happened during a phase of play; this gives a second perspective or opinion when it comes to controversial sports moments.
2. Sensors: Sensors are the driving force of technology in athletic gear and sports equipment. Sensors can be built into clothing and shoes worn by athletes or equipment. Sensors, in general, help improve the athletes’ overall performance through data monitoring and eliminates little errors in timing and accuracy. According to an article by Sports Management Degrees, based on the unique functionality, sensors can be used for anything from tracking health and biometrics to delivering real-time results to scoreboards. Some of the sensors already in use or in development can be used in the Nigerian sports sector; these include:

• Heart rate monitors to track pulse and breathing patterns.
• Inertial sensors that perform human motion analysis can be used for recovery after injuries and accidents.
• Accelerometers and gyroscopes to monitor position, rotation, acceleration and speed.
• GPS (Global Positioning System) units to track velocity metrics outdoors.
• LPS (Local Positioning System) units to measure velocity metrics indoors with higher accuracy than GPS.
• VBT (Velocity Based Training) sensors to track performance in the weight room.
• Sleep trackers to monitor and optimise sleep patterns.
• Pressure sensors to determine the frequency and accuracy of strikes or footfalls.

Final thoughts

We acknowledge that some of the suggested sports techs in this blog may already be in use. And indeed, there may be others that are not mentioned. This blog is only a teaser for the Nigeria tech ecosystem and food for thought. As usual, Akingate would like to encourage more home-grown sport-techs to advance the Nigerian sports sector, create champions, increase prize awards and contribute to the growth of Nigeria’s economy.

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