Sports hit new heights, Shehu Dikko claims Nigeria’s sports sector now contributes over 1% to GDP

By Maxwell Kumoye 

 

Nigeria’s sports economy just smashed through a major milestone and Shehu Dikko, chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), says the best is still ahead.

Speaking with journalists in Lagos on Monday, Dikko announced that the sports sector is now contributing “almost more than one percent” to Nigeria’s GDP, a figure that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

The revelation came after the NSC conducted a deep-dive analysis of newly collected economic data for Q4 2025, the first time the country has ever had structured, verifiable figures measuring the financial weight of sports.

It's noteworthy to state that this claim by the Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Shehu Dikko has not been verified by Nigeria Bureau of Statistics.

“THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS DATA AND WE’VE FIXED IT”

In a blunt assessment, Dikko said Nigeria’s biggest obstacle to unlocking the sports economy has been the absence of reliable data.

“I can tell you my final take on all this: there is a lack of data in this country,” he said.

“If we have data, most of these problems will not happen.”

To change that reality, the NSC has created what Dikko described as a “clear data sheet for sports” a quarterly system that tracks:

✓ Sponsorship inflow

✓ Jobs created

✓ Competitions held nationwide

✓ Economic activity from amateur to elite levels

And the results, Dikko said, are already speaking loudly.

“For the last quarter of this year, we found out we have done almost more than 1 percent of GDP. Nobody had that data in the past, but now we have.”

With Nigeria’s GDP standing at N51.20 trillion as of September 2025, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, Dikko’s claim places sports firmly on the map as a major economic contributor, not just a pastime.

THE 3% TARGET, A BIG VISION STILL IN PLAY

This breakthrough also aligns with the chairman’s ambitious promise made in 2024, to grow sports into a sector contributing at least 3% of GDP within four years.

If the new data is anything to go by, that goal no longer looks like wishful thinking, it looks like a roadmap.

A NEW ERA FOR NIGERIAN SPORTS

Dikko’s message is simple but powerful: sports are no longer just entertainment, they are business, jobs, infrastructure, and national growth.

And with the NSC’s new data-driven approach, Nigeria now has something it has lacked for decades, proof of sports’ true economic value and the numbers to chase even bigger goals.