President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF), Ifedayo Akindoju, has reaffirmed the commitment of his Federation in promoting gender equality as far as participation and officiating of tennis events in the country is concerned.
Akindoju made the remarks while declaring open a maiden International Tennis Federation’s Advantage All workshop in Abuja on Friday.
In the same vein, the Nigeria Tennis Umpires Association(NTUA) made history on Friday in Abuja. This followed the successful hosting of its maiden International Tennis Federation’s Advantage All programme the first time in Africa.
The workshop, which was organised by the NTF in collaboration with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) had at least not less than 20 female tennis officials from across the country in participation.
According to the organisers, the event aimed to further deepen the domestication of the initiative which the country formally signed into in 2021 at the Annual General Meeting of ITF in Glasgow, Scotland.
Akindoju, who extolled the unprecedented milestones being recorded by the Officiating Department of the Federation, added that officiating in Nigeria had advanced beyond one’s imagination, adding that the ladies in tennis officiating have done so well.
“What we are witnessing here today is another landmark to show that ladies are very interested in sports and in tennis in particular.
“As a Federation, “we are promoting gender fairness, gender equality in terms of opportunities and participation, and have put in place a well monitored and guided mechanism to ensure that no body is treated unfairly,” Akindoju said.
Acting Chairman of the Nigeria Tennis Umpires Association (NTUA), Rose Abu encouraged the participants to make adequate use of the opportunity to develop and sharpen their officiating knowledge and skills.
She also thanked the ITF for endorsing the event as well as commended the effort and commitment of the President of NTF and the country’s Officiating Manager, Kehinde Ijaola for making the day a reality.
Gold+badge Chair Umpire and an Advantage All Global ambassador, Eva Asderaki-Moore, led a series of virtual international goodwill messages from female tennis umpires across the world to the participants.
With the theme, ‘Tennis Officiating: Place, Value Of Women In Officiating And Empowerment’, the workshop had series of paper presentations on topical issues.
