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| L-R: Dan Akpovwe, Publisher, Abuja Inquirer; Valentine Ozigbo, Chairman of Feet n Tricks Limited; Jude Monye, Executive Director, Heritage Bank Plc and Oluwafunmi Aloku, Head, Product Strategy and Business Solutions, Heritage Bank, during the 3rd edition of African Freestyle Football Competition 2019 in Lagos. |
African
Freestyle Football (AFFC) Championship 2019 in collaboration with World
Freestyle Football Association (WFFA) have commended Heritage Bank Plc
for its pivotal
role in enhancing youth development and engendering the Nigeria’s
entertainment space on the world’s stage.
The
2019 African Freestyle Football Championship ended on a high note, with
defending champion Abdul Titi Kone of Cote d’Ivoire emerging as the
African Champion once again.
This event marked the 2nd edition of the African Championship and the
3rd annual edition of the Nigerian Championship hosted by Feet ‘n’
Tricks International Limited. The final was a repeat of the 2018
championship, as Kone again defeated Egypt’s Yousef Mohamad
just as he did in last year’s final while Ashley Mhkize of South Africa
placed third.
In
the female category, Evelyn Okafor (Nigeria), Hadhara Charles
(Tanzania) and Augustina Unamba (Nigeria) placed first, second and third
respectively.
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| L-R: Erlend Fagerli, Multiple World Champion, Freestyle Football (AFFC Judge); Valentine Ozigbo, Chairman of Feet ‘n’ Tricks Limited; Jude Monye, Executive Director, Heritage Bank Plc; Philip Gertsson, Sweden-based Norwegian-Filipino Football Freestyle (AFFC Judge) and Laura Biondo, first female freestyle to establish a Guinness World Record (AFFC Judge), during the 3rd edition of African Freestyle Football Competition 2019 in Lagos. |
This year’s edition accommodated at least 30 African countries that participated at the championship.
The
Chairman of AFFC, Valentine Ozigbo, who commended bank for being at the
forefront of promoting freestyle football for the past two years, said
Heritage Bank is “always
very innovative and supportive to the cause of entertainment and youth
development.
According
to him, these achievements would have been impossible without the
extensive support of the official bankers (Heritage Bank) for the
championship for two years
running.
Speaking
further, Ozigbo hinted, “since inception, Feet ‘n’ Tricks has been
committed to promoting freestyle football talent to stardom and we
haven’t relented. Through
this platform, we have seen talented freestylers get a head start in
life, travel to exciting places and represent our beloved continent
doing what they know how to do best.”
The
MD/CEO, Heritage Bank, Ifie Sekibo, said the bank has strong desire
towards developing and positioning youths to become world-class citizens
equipped and ready to
be absorbed into an increasing competitive professional skills and
endeavours.
Sekibo,
who was represented by an Executive Director, Jude Monye advised the
youths who were participants to adopt strong positive character to
enable them take advantage
of the platform being presented to them.
“One
of the reasons why we chose, as an organization, to support the
freestyle championship is to enhance youth development in sport and
entertainment, which will empower
them play vital roles in the socio-economic development of the country
and help curb the high level of unemployment,” he stressed.
According to Sekibo, the drive to support youths seeks to create, preserve and transfer wealth across generations.
It is against the backdrop of the competition that Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF) President, Amaju Pinnick, promised to give more support
to the entertaining part of football.
“We
need to encourage this entertaining part of football because what they
are doing here is great. Freestyle is quite interesting, and I am happy
with what I have seen
so far.
“With
this project, a goal has been achieved. I also want more ladies to come
out and do freestyle football because it is highly entertaining and
competitive.
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“I will see to how we can give more support to freestyle football in the future,”he said.
Congratulating
the Feet n Tricks team, Daniel Wood, Co-founder and Head of Global
Partnerships, World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA) said, “Feet n
Tricks have proven
that they can produce world class events and we are so excited to be
extending our partnership. We are fully committed to creating
opportunities for young people and this event is to be the focus point
for our sport in the continent of Africa
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