GTI, Abubakar Lawal is the arrow head of the team leading the revival of the domestic football as strategic partner of the Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL.
For all of his financial finesse and expertise, Lawal on the surface seems like an unlikely football fan, until you press for his football credentials.
“Football as you know is a childhood thing and every child love playing football, and, as such, I was not an exemption,” Lawal began with smiles in an interview this sunny afternoon in his simple, yet aesthetically set office in Lagos. “Growing up, I also played football.
”I was born in Ibadan and traditionally like every other children we were privileged to play football on and off the streets as well as played college football at different levels. We loved playing football, and, as you know, Nigeria is a football-loving nation. So, it’s nothing particularly different from what we have today.”
Of course, hardly can you see an Ibadan-born person without an affinity to the famous IICC Shooting Stars FC that has since transmuted to Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC); and Lawal was one.
“Of course, without a doubt, I was a great fan of IICC growing up (general laughter),” he admitted. “Outside the country, I support Arsenal and this has been over 30 years; since I grew up to appreciate European football.
“I loved Arsenal style of play and I have been following Arsenal ever since. But this does not take away my love for Nigerian football and you know the narrative, for me, has changed as far as supporting a local team; the narrative is business,” he notes, as he speaks on the economy of Nigerian football and GTI-welcomed intervention in the domestic football via the Nigeria Football Trust Fund (TNFF).
FROM FUN TO BUSINESS
But his mentality and choices have since changed while building his own career, as he explained: “When I was to choose a career, I chose to be an investment banker and investment banking is all about providing solution. We (GTI) are always looking at the Nigerian story and anywhere we can make an impact; and sports came in handy, hence The Nigeria Football Fund (TNFF).
“Investment banking is all about providing solution. You have to be creative to be successful as an investment banker, and as such we (at GTI) have always be looking at ways of changing the Nigerian narratives. Football is just one of those assets we value to change the narratives of Nigeria. So, that is the story of football, which is an impactful story that actually changes the narrative of Nigeria.
“Today, everybody can see the level of our sports; so we sat down 13 years ago, and said ‘we have to do something’; and that was when the story of Nigeria’s sport ecosystem came in and we started packaging it. This (The Nigeria Football Fund) only came to light in 2020 but we started in 2010. We first went to SEC (Security & Exchange Commission) in 2003. We were in SEC for almost six years in order to register the structure, and that tells you that a lot of works have gone into TNFF. What everybody is seeing today is the finished product.
“We (GTI) are now trying to build the entire Nigerian football economy. That is what we have been trying hard to do in the last 13 years; to build a football economy that can be a component of the national GDP (Gross Domestic Product). The target is to, at least, deliver one percent of the country’s GDP in the next five years and that is a tall order. Is that not? So, this is not a joke but serious business. What people are seeing today is far bigger than what is ahead. It’s a serious business. For example, if you are saying that the Nigerian economy today is about five billion dollars, what you are invariably saying is that the sporting ecosystem should be representative of that. So, if we look at it critically, we are talking about delivering five hundred million dollars and that is just for one percent. But if you are looking at two percent, you are talking about delivering one billion dollars. So it’s a lot of work, and that is our target in the next five to 10 years. So, it’s a very huge and long journey that we have started.”
Of course, the common dictum at GTI is that football is big business and Lawal was quick to reveal how much was spent in the last NPFL abridged season, as well as the expectations in the coming season.
“Well, we spent well over a billion naira to put that season together. And in this coming season, we’re seeing ourselves spending conservatively about $ 5 billion, which is starting in August ( August 26).
“There’s so much going on in that space, but the beauty is the structure we have built, it’s not just GTI money.
“We now have a structure that attracts funding into that space and the beauty is that every dollar and naira is accounted for transparently, and every investor is looking forward to return on investment.
“We are building a structure that attracts liquidity through the Nigeria Football Fund that is governed by the Securities and Exchange Commission. So, you can see that it’s very transparent.
“That model is the first in the world. No other nation does that. They’re still going to come to copy us with time. But what we have delivered, because of the peculiarity of our environment, and to bring about serious corporate governance, serious transparency and discipline into that space. With God on our side, we have been able to deliver that.”
EYES ON THE FUTURE
“So, our projection this coming season, we’ll be looking forward to spending about five billion and there’s so much creativity that is going to come into that space.
“So much spending. But at the end of the day, the money will come back. Investors will have to be happy. We have been able to deliver what we call the proof of concept. It’s clear to everybody what they have seen in the last season and the stakeholders are happy for what we have done. We are going to continue to improve on the deliveries. We have done the heavy lifting already because, in the course of the journey, 10, 13 years, we have done enough of identification of those issues that have affected the Nigerian football ecosystem in the past; and we have surmounted more than 70% of it today. By virtue of the structure, we have confronted all those issues. And we have, as I said to you, it’s business now. It’s huge business. You see, money, governance, transparency, everything is open now. There are no longer challenges, rather there are growing opportunities. You know, we’re transiting from recreation, if you don’t mind my language; from recreation to business. We needed to be creative to be able to deliver the proof of concept. Now we have delivered. For example, last season, we delivered 200 million as take-off grants to the clubs, which was unheard of in the history of Nigerian football. As part of our reference, when we secured the deal, we told the NFF and the league board, that we will put this asset back on the stream.”
CREATING NATIONAL ASSETS
Lawal further posited that GTI is in Nigerian football for the long haul:
“We will create a national asset out of Nigerian football. Last season, we took care of referees’ indemnities as officials were paid online, real-time, every week. We took care of production.
“We took care of broadcast. We were able to put the league on the television. We took care of all the logistics and technology. There were a whole lot of things that we did in the course of that maiden season. And I think that’s not enough.
“We put a value on the winner. We gave 100 million naira to the winner as well as a tidy sum of money to the runners-up, which was a clear departure from what we used to have.
“I can tell you for free that, next season; it’s going to be 150 million naira for the winner of the league.”
In Nigerian football, sponsorship has been few and far in-between in recent years. But Lawal is optimistic of brighter future: “So, right now, we are speaking to a lot of sponsors and we have a story now. We have a business case that we are building. And we are engaging Corporate Nigeria and global brands. The next season is kicking off in August, end of August. “Between now and end of August, we are trying to manage and galvanise liquidity into the ecosystem. “Because we have created value and we needed to showcase the value for partners, associates and sponsors to partner with us in delivering value to Nigerian youths and creating a football economy that Nigerians and all the stakeholders will be happy about.
“Already, we have a deal with a brand in Europe for the streaming of the Nigerian league in over 100 countries of the world. Fantastic! AI technology is going to be deployed. We are planning and can you imagine you waking up in New York, Asia, Europe and other parts of Africa to watch the live streaming of the league. So, if you have a product in Nigeria and you are not partnering with us, you’ll be losing out of this huge exposure and mileage before billion eyes across the world.”
He continued: “We are building something that is going to be self-sustaining and interesting. This is going to be very rewarding to investors and sponsors and all the critical partners to this ecosystem. The end product of all of this is about the players.
“Let me put it in a layman’s language, in the next two years, an average footballer in Nigeria will be earning three million Naira a month.
“That’s the target for on on the average, a grade B footballer. The grade A, there’s nothing wrong in earning 10 million Naira a month. Footballers are one of the highest-paid professionals all over the world, so why not in Nigeria?
“Why do you think our children are running away to be earning 500, 1,000 dollar contract, 5,000 dollar contract in other countries? Why? It’s because we didn’t create an environment to support their dreams. In North Africa, people don’t run away. In Southern African league, they pay 100,000 dollars a month to play. That’s 100,000 dollars. In North Africa, you earn as much as 80,000 dollars or 100,000. So what is wrong with Nigerian league?
“The Nigerian league has more content. We have more talents here. These are the components that make a viable league. The talents are there. The market is there. The passion, the national passion, is there.
“Where are the gaps? Infrastructure and management, we’ve taken care of all of that. Liquidity is coming in. So what do you expect? So, if I say 3 million Naira, it’s going to be cheap. “I’m going to have players that will be earning five to ten million Naira a month, and it’s going to happen, because that is the essence of baking this big cake through the TNFF.
“So if an average club is earning 1 billion Naira, for example, why will it not be able to pay the 30 players an average of N10 million? I’m just saying it’s very simple. And that’s what we are working at.”
GOVERNMENT AND CLUB FOOTBALL
Lawal also canvassed that government will in time hand over running clubs, adding that sports will surely witness growth as witnessed in the banking industry, as a result of deregulation.
He added: “Let me take your mind back to the Nigerian banking ecosystem, the reforms in the early 90s. If you recall in the 80s, all the banks were owned by government,. That was the time that we used to say the popular phase of 30 numbers.
“But when, in the wisdom of the then President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, there was deregulation of that space, and people said, 10 years, government disappeared. Government can’t compete. No government can pay an average player five million Naira a month. No governor today earns five million Naira as salary. An average player will earn that. Two, three years down the road. So which state is going to be paying that? The natural curve will play out. No government can compete in that space. Do you have government in Europe running Arsenal, Manchester
United and all of those clubs? No government.
“An average club is supposed to be very wealthy. When you hear that a player is being paid 300,000 pounds a week or 500,000 pounds a week. “Where do you think the money is coming from? It’s not from British government. It’s a no-brainer that the same thing is going to play out in Nigeria very soon.”
BETWEEN BEING A FINANCIAL EXPERT AND PHILOSOPHER
A visit to the GTI headquarters would ordinarily give a first timer the impression that the custodian of such hallowed environment is a philosopher-king than a financial expert with motivational quotes gleaned from notable authors as words on the marble.
“Referring to me as a philosopher than an investment banker is really a tough one,” he said with fists clenched. “There are so many things that excite me, but my interest is all about making an impact and seeing people happy economically.
“All those quotes on the wall are to inspire my colleagues, myself and every visitor to our office. To inspire people that it is possible.
“What is my management style? It depends on the definition that you ascribe to it. But if you ask me, my management style will include being able to professionalise things; and I mean to do things properly and professionally
“Delivering service professionally in order to impact and enhance the environment; the environment, including my colleagues.
To build a very interesting team, because I believe one day, a very young manager will become a group MD.
“So you have to make impact on them and build a management that can impact the upcoming ones so that they too can excel.
“And at the end of the day, the brand can be a big value for all the stakeholders. It’s as simple as that.”
FROM INNATE LOVE FOR FOOTBALL TO PASSION FOR GOLF
While football can be said to be an innate thing from childhood, Lawal, as a likeable gentleman that he is, has since developed passion for the ‘the game of gentlemen’, as golf is often referred to.
“Of course, I can’t be as good as Tiger Woods, because he’s a professional golf player,” he notes, with his unmistakable smiles, even as he shares some of other treasures. “But I’ve been playing golf for over 30 years religiously as an amateur.
“Of course, golf is a very interesting sport, for obvious reasons. You know, it’s a game that challenges every aspect of man. It tests all the components of human being, including all senses. Be it the sense of smell; the sense of touch; the sense of sight and whatever. You have to know the direction of the wind. You know you can smell challenges. You know your vision. You just have to pull your brain together because you have to visualise, calculate and measure.
“Of course, you must be physically fit and mentally strong because the game of golf is a serious sport. For those that know, they would tell you that golf is not a child’s play,” Lawal posited.
PAN NIGERIA IN OUTLOOK
For Lawal, Nigeria is so blessed to become a pipe dream: “What drives me is that Nigeria should not be a poor country given all our collective potentialities.
“I think we can create 10 Alikos (Dangote), and that is the kind of Nigeria we should have. All the six geo political zones in Nigeria should have not less than five Alikos. As such, we need at least 30 Alikos. Nigeria should not be a poor country
“We are far from where we are supposed to be. Nigeria is supposed to be a conservatively $1.5 trillion economy but we are just conservatively $450 billion economy. So what drives me is for us to have low unemployment rate. That’s one thing that can make me happy. When we reduce poverty to the barest minimum, when our infrastructures are up and working, our factories are working, the economy is working. I don’t need anything, but that’s the only thing that makes me happy all the time.
“If I see a new plant coming up, I’m very happy; New opportunities, new prospects, and new initiatives. That’s the thing that makes me happy. Anything outside of that is not my take,” he sounded off.
SOURCE : THENATION