By S. Siapha Mulbah
The growing fever of Liberia’s biggest traditional sporting festival of the National County Sports Meet has hit the country following the pronouncement of a new prime sponsor.
The annual sports tournament that unifies the country featuring all fifteen subdivisions is underway for another edition as the organizers announced ArcelorMittal (AML) as the new prime sponsor to take over the tournament.
All along the way the tournament has been sponsored by concession companies contributing to the growth and development of Liberia through sportsmanship that has led to a successful conclusion of edition for the years in review.
With most recent editions prime sponsor being Orange Liberia who had served the sporting arena for some years now as a mobile GSM company ending with rewarding to all participants, the mining company has secured the slot to lead the campaign that is expected to kick off in Grand Bassa County this December.
This year’s edition ArcelorMittal Liberia sponsorship according to authorities appears as the biggest deal and the most worthy ever in the history of County Meet since the 1970s.
Unveiling the deal on Monday, Youth and Sports Minister Zoegar Wilson said that there had been a channel of engagement between the Steel Company and the Ministry for the process over a period of three years.
Though others were on the banner as sponsors, the minster maintained that a constant engagement with the AML was cardinal with prospects that there could be betterment in serving such sponsorship based on the company’s workings across the country.
He explained that the company finally decided to take on the 2022/23 edition of the tournament with a financial contribution of US$275,000.
According to him the allotted fund from ArcelorMittal was presented to facilitate the tournament while the portion of the contribution will be distributed to the affected operational counties of the company.
“This deal with the sum of US$275,000 has $250,000 going to the ministry for the running of the league while $25,000 goes to Nimba, Grand Bassa and Bong counties,” he added.
Sports stakeholders and others that attended the event including the Senate Youth and Sports Committee chairperson Darius Dillon lauded the sponsor and others that will partner with the competition.
They called on the Ministry of Youth and Sports to push the best interest of the country by ensuring that the tournament be used to showcase talents and meet other cardinal objectives.
Senator Dillon said the county meet had been a unifying campaign and as such the organizers must see to it that the unifying spirit falls in the country throughout the new campaign.
