By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
No fewer than 157 amateur golfers have converged on the Kaduna Golf Club to compete various prizes at the First Bank Sponsored Amateur Tournament, which teed off yesterday, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Chairman, Hon. Nazifi Jibrin has disclosed.
He made the disclosure at a press conference preparatory to the tournament on Friday, adding that the tournament promises to be an opportunity for golfers to showcase their talents.
Hon. Nazifi who is the Vice Chairman of the Kaduna Golf Club also disclosed that all arrangements has been put in place to ensure a hitch free tournament.
Also speaking at the press conference, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), FirstBank Group, Dr. Adesola Adeduntan, represented by the Group Executive Retail North of the bank, Alhaji Shehu Aliyu commended the management of the club for the collaboration and partnership on the remarkable initiative for the first time.
He said, for almost 130 years of FirstBank’s existence, they have been a driving force in the promotion of sports in Nigeria and across the Bank’s subsidiaries which he said has been accentuated by our legacy sponsorships of tournaments such as the Kaduna Polo tournament (currently in its 103rd year of sponsorship), Golf, Tennis, Football, and Basketball, amongst others.
“FirstBank’s partnership and long-standing sponsorship of golf through the FirstBank Lagos Amateur Open Golf Championship for almost 63 years is therefore one of the ways by which we demonstrate our commitment to building a legacy not only for golf and golfers, but sports in its entirety.
“Golf, an aspirational sport cutting across age, gender, culture, language, beliefs, social status, and differing abilities is one of the reasons we strongly believe that there is no better place to build, deepen, and strengthen relationships than on the golf course”.
He said, the sponsorship of the tournament is to foster networking and healthy competition among golfers and, additionally, to subsequently provide a steady platform for the golfers in this region to attain professional success.
“The tournament is also an opportunity to showcase the local golfing talent. Sponsorship of this Tournament falls under the First@sports initiative through which the Bank demonstrates its unwavering commitment to the development of sporting talents in Nigeria and, indeed, globally.
“We are glad about this new partnership with Kaduna Golf Club, and we hope that this is just the beginning of many more collaborations to further promote the sport. We are confident that this tournament will be a great success and will help to inspire many golfers in the region”.
The Kaduna Golf club Captain Mr. Ken Nwankwo while commending First bank for partnering the club reasuured the management of the bank that they will not be disappointed as the tournament will worth the partnership.
