Afrinvest has deepened its partnership with the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) to drive digital transformation, strengthen commercial capacity and position Nigerian football clubs for sustainable revenue growth.

The commitment was reaffirmed on Wednesday during the NPFL–Afrinvest Media and Marketing Workshop in Enugu, where media officers and marketing heads from the 20 NPFL clubs underwent training on branding, digital visibility, sponsorship attraction and fan engagement.

The workshop, with the theme ‘The Role of Marketing and Media Officers in Generating Wealth for Professional Football Clubs’, focused on the need for clubs to move beyond dependence on government funding by building stronger digital platforms, generating reliable data and creating commercially attractive brands.

Speaking at the event, NPFL Chief Operating Officer, Chief Davidson Owunmi, challenged clubs to embrace digital transformation, warning that inadequate data and poor online visibility were preventing the league from attracting major commercial partners.

The league, he said, continues to miss sponsorship opportunities because corporate organisations now demand credible digital data before investing.

He stated: “After the broadcast rights today, the next money-spinning or revenue-generating resource is data. We need to tell ourselves the open truth today.

We have ongoing contracts, but do you know what they ask of us? ‘What is your data? Where is your data for the league?’ We don’t have it.”

According to him, every club must contribute high-quality content and statistics for the NPFL to build a robust central database.

“We need our clubs to be visible. We need your presence in the social space. We need all the clubs generating data because the NPFL only archives what you generate.

“If we have 20 active Premier League teams generating data from their clubs, it makes our own website very rich. But if nothing is coming from Bendel Insurance, Kwara United, Shooting Stars, what will be on the NPFL central platform? Nothing!”

Owunmi also encouraged clubs to become financially independent.

“You cannot just depend on the government continuously. A dead media department is a dead club. A dead marketing unit is a dead club. We want our clubs to be healthy financially.

“Enough is enough. You cannot be doing the same thing all over again and expect a different result,” said the COO.

He charged participants at the workshop to translate the knowledge gained into practical action.

The Manager of Afrinvest’s Enugu Office, Emmanuel Eleojo, said the investment firm’s support for Rangers and its collaboration with the NPFL were anchored on the belief that football could only flourish when backed by sound financial structures.

“For us at Afrinvest, internally, there is this philosophy we call ‘Finance Meets Football’. That is how we have tagged our intervention with our partnership with Rangers International and now the NPFL.

“The success of the Nigerian football league is not really only about what happens on the pitch, but also the strength of those behind the institutions and clubs playing on the pitch. That is why we threw our weight behind Rangers in 2023,” he said.

He said the partnership had already delivered measurable results, citing improvements in youth development and competitive success.

The General Manager of Rangers International, Amobi Ezeaku, commended both Afrinvest and the NPFL for championing initiatives aimed at strengthening the financial future of Nigerian football clubs.

“I appreciate Afrinvest for agreeing to sponsor this workshop that is about to change our financial status as a league. The resource persons, we cannot thank you enough for coming to impact knowledge.

“Let us look at football with an open mind. We want to see the clubs’ jerseys all over the country. What we’re talking about today is having a healthy ecosystem in our league. Media officers and marketing directors should be our backbones in terms of revenue generation,” he said.

One of the lead resource persons at the workshop, George Isitua-Onukwu, who spoke on ‘Monetising NPFL Clubs Through Marketing, Sponsorship and Brand Investment’, harped on the need for the clubs to adopt a clear and time-bound approach to branding and marketing.

According to him, sponsors of NPFL clubs remain hesitant because clubs cannot yet guarantee the consistent visibility and production quality that brands require.

“Clubs without a structured calendar for renewals, activation briefs and reporting are, by definition, always reacting,” he stated.

Advocating the development of a 12-month commercial calendar with clearly defined deadlines for renewals, briefs and reporting reviews, Isitua-Onukwu added, “People wear clubs when the club represents something they want to express.”

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