The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the National Institute for Sports (NIS), Comrade Philip Shaibu, has taken a major step to sanitise Nigeria’s coaching system with the inauguration of a Certificate Verification Committee.
The committee was set up ahead of a nationwide revalidation exercise for all coaching certificates issued by the Institute, slated to commence on January 4, 2027.
Speaking while inaugurating the committee, Shaibu said the three-month exercise, which will run until March 4, 2027, is aimed at authenticating NIS certificates, updating the Institute’s records and restoring confidence in the qualifications of Nigerian coaches.
Under the directive, all coaches who passed through the Institute are expected to report at the NIS office in Abuja for verification and revalidation of their certificates.
Shaibu stressed that after the exercise, any NIS coaching certificate not revalidated will not be recognised by agencies within and outside Nigeria.
The committee is chaired by the Registrar of the Institute, Mr. Belmond Benson, with the Institute’s Librarian, Dr. Omoh Atsenokhai, as Secretary.
It has been given three months to carry out groundwork, organise existing records and put necessary logistics in place for a smooth and credible exercise.
The DG noted that the initiative is part of his administration’s drive to entrench professionalism, uphold institutional standards and protect the integrity of NIS qualifications, while building a reliable database of certified coaches in the country.
