The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has signed a four-year partnership deal with the country’s biggest airline, Air Peace, to become the exclusive airline sponsor of the country’s national teams.
The deal is worth N300m annually and renewable every year for the next four years.
Signing the agreement on Wednesday in Lagos, the Chairman, Air Peace, Allen Onyema, explained that the decision to sign the contract despite the current economic crunch in the aviation sector was hinged on the airline’s desire to be part of the success stories of the Super Eagles.
He said; “I decided to be part of what NFF is doing today, not because of their hard work, resilience, breaking barriers to make sure that Nigerian football is in the forefront globally, but principally because I want to use the platform that God has given me to restore hope in this country.
“A lot of people are in despair. People are losing hope in the country. I plead with you not to lose hope, it’s a great country. Other countries are envious of Nigeria.”
The NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, said with the Air Peace partnership, the federation had become 75 per cent self-funded, stressing that the desire of the football body was to become 100 per cent self-funded.
He said; “Air Peace is not only 100 per cent about safety, but it is an organisation with a human heart. We have noticed their rise meteorically and we are convinced that this coming together is ordained by God Almighty.
“We are going to protect what we’ve signed. We want to attain 100 per cent self-funding and that is our dream. We will be signing another major contract tomorrow (today) and by then we will be 90 per cent self-funding. In another four weeks, we are signing another contract that will liberate us and move us to the level where we are 100 per cent self-funding.”
Pinnick was in company with Super Eagles stars Alex Iwobi, Tyrone Ebuehi, Oghenekaro Etebo and Joe Aribo
With the partnership, the airline would fly the Nigerian players and officials to Cape Verde with its new Embraer E195-E2 aircraft.
PUNCH