Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio has appointed Dr. Emmanuel Saffa Abdula Esq, CEO of Luawa FC as the Executive Director of the National Sports Authority.
Saffa Abdulai comes with huge knowledge in particularly football administration and as a CEO of a Premier League club.
Saffa Abdula Esq, CEO of Luawa FC, has expressed his delight at the prospect of revamping the National Sports Authority as he look forward to his challenge.
confirming his appointment as the new executive Director of the National Sports Authority (NSA), he Succeeds Dr. Kenneth Brima who served for over five-years.
However one of the major tasks ahead of him will be to revive the entire Projects of the NSA, making it more effective and ensure that Sports benefit young people
Expectations are high as many sports enthusiasts hope that he will be able to surmount the long-standing challenge of sharing resources somehow fairly among sporting disciplines and that he won’t be football focused like others.
Meanwhile, National Sports Authority (NSA) earlier declared that only five (5) out of the 49 registered sporting associations prioritized to receive funding to support their activities leaving other associations struggling to fund their calendar of events
According to the former Executive Director NSA Dr. Kenneth Brima, they selected Five (5) sporting associations including Football, Athletics, Cricket, Volleyball and Basketball that are prioritized to receive funding from the government tentatively, while the other will have to wait for a period of four months because of the challenges faced by the Finance Ministry
“The reason being for this prioritization is there are challenges, the government can’t do all for now, so we just have to take that as a great measure. Funding is a problem so we have to prioritize tentatively. There have been so many bashing and other allegations on us the ministry of sports and the NSA that we don’t want to support other sporting disciplines, but they don’t understand the dynamics, we are not responsible to dish out funds, when they send their request we present that request to the Finance Ministry, but due to the constraints faced by the Finance Ministry they said we should prioritize and we just have to abide, it’s not our making,” –Brima stated
The National Sports Authority of Sierra Leone is tasked with responsibility for the promotion, encouragement, development, and supervision of sports and sporting Activities in Sierra Leone and to provide for other related matters.
Lawyer Abdulai is expected to develop, organize, promote and manage competitive and social sports with the view of promoting health fitness, recreation, national cohesion and professionalism that ensures sustainable wealth creation, vigorous infrastructure development and proactive management which leads to sports excellence and international recognition for Sierra Leone
