Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, called for early exposure of young talents to sports to develop well-rounded athletes in the country.
Dare made this call on Thursday at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian Tulip International College (NTIC) in Abuja.
The MoU will see the adoption of 20 talented young boys and girls who will undergo world standard training with an all education and sports scholarship in school.
He said that early quality education and sports development must go hand-in-hand for Nigeria to have an edge in the world of sports.
The minister said the partnership with the college was part of the efforts by the ministry to develop young talents in line with international best practice.
He said: “We are happy that the NTIC shares the same vision with us, not just only that but the fact that they are proactive to give life to it, which is the reason we are here today.
“It is most important that these young ones are Nigerians. We are happy to see them benefit from your 100 per cent scholarship scheme.
“We have always pushed that sports and education must move together, it has worked in other countries and Nigeria won’t be an exception.”
In a response, the Managing Director of NTIC, Mr Fevzullah Bilgin, pledged to ensure world class training in education and sports for the beneficiaries of the scholarship.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that young talents to be captured in the MoU included those discovered from the 2019 National Youth Games held in Ilorin, among other competitions.