The 19th edition of the National Sports Festival has come and gone but the Minister of Sports Barrister Solomon Dalung has been counting the gains from the Abuja games.

While Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, the Minister said that he is excited that the festival has added value to the country’s economy in the last couple of weeks and coupled with the fact that the game has given each state government the opportunity to empower their athletes.

“The National Sports Festival produced over 163 millionaires because I know of at least one state whose Governor promised each gold medalist one million Naira. That state won 163 gold medals and they have made those athletes millionaires.

“This is besides those who won more than two gold medals. Some states promised half a million naira for each gold medal so the number of millionaires will even rise beyond that and I can confidently state that from the National Sports Festival, we have produced at least 200 millionaires.

“That is empowerment and you can’t find any country in Africa where they have been able to empower young people in just 10 days and produced 200 millionaires.

This has impacted positively on youth development but the greatest benefit of the NSF is the building of bridges between the young people and the bonding which I personally witnessed. This cannot be quantified in monetary terms”.

The Minister also said that Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product GDP has gone up in the ten days due to the festival.

“During the 19th National Sports Festival, wealth was distributed. By the end of this quarter when the GDP report will be produced by the National Bureau of Statistics , there will be either a 0.2 or 0.3 steady growth as the contribution from sports because of the National Sports Festival so we, in the Ministry of Youth and Sports can beat our chests and say that we have contributed to the GDP of the country in 2018” Barrister Dalung said. He added