The National Grassroots Sports Development Summit 2026 is scheduled to take place in Abuja, Nigeria, on November 18 and 19, 2026. The summit, organized by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Grassroots Sports Development, Prince Adeyinka Adegboye, aims to create a new pathway for sustainable grassroots sports development in Nigeria. The event will bring together stakeholders to discuss the challenges and opportunities in grassroots sports development.
Grassroots sports is the foundation upon which elite sports is built, and it is essential to provide young people with opportunities to participate, develop skills, compete, and potentially progress into higher levels of sport. The summit will promote a system in which talent identification is connected to coaching, education, facilities, regular competition, athlete welfare, and a clear progression pathway to elite sports. This approach is expected to help Nigeria harness its enormous sporting population and produce more exceptional athletes.
One of the major conversations at the summit, "Grassroots Sports Development in Nigeria: Challenges and Way Forward," will examine the obstacles that have limited the country's ability to fully harness its sporting population. Another keynote discussion, "The Game Changer: How Sports Rescues Youth and Builds Nations," will broaden the conversation beyond medals and trophies to examine sports as an instrument for youth empowerment, employment, education, social inclusion, national unity, and economic development.
The summit is expected to bring together representatives of government at different levels, sports federations, educational institutions, coaches, athletes, former internationals, academies, corporate organizations, development partners, traditional institutions, community stakeholders, and the media. Corporate Nigeria will also have an important role to play, as sustainable grassroots sports development requires investment beyond government funding.
Support is needed for sporting facilities, equipment, competitions, coaching programs, scholarships, talent identification, and athlete development. The summit presents an opportunity to move the national conversation from "Who are our next champions?" to a more fundamental question: "What system are we putting in place to discover, develop, and support those champions?" This shift in focus is crucial for creating a coordinated national pathway for grassroots sports development.
The vision of the summit is to build a Nigeria where talent is not left to chance, opportunity is not determined by location, and the next generation of sporting stars can emerge from every part of the country. The summit is about creating a system where a talented child discovered in a school, community, or local government area can be identified, nurtured, educated, trained, and given a realistic opportunity to progress from the grassroots to the national stage and, ultimately, to the world.
According to Dr. Mrs. Kehinde Ajayi, the immediate past Director Information & Public Relations and the Chairperson, Media and Publicity committee of the National Grassroots Sports Summit 2026, the event represents more than another gathering in Abuja. It is an opportunity to begin building a coordinated national pathway for grassroots sports development and to place the development of Nigeria's sporting future firmly where it belongs: at the grassroots.
Key points
- The National Grassroots Sports Development Summit 2026 aims to create a new pathway for sustainable grassroots sports development in Nigeria.
- The summit will promote a system in which talent identification is connected to coaching, education, facilities, regular competition, athlete welfare, and a clear progression pathway to elite sports.
- The event is expected to bring together stakeholders from various sectors to discuss the challenges and opportunities in grassroots sports development.
