Mailantarki Academy, has won the football tournament for northern Nigeria sponsored by Galaxy Backbone Limited held over the weekend at Army barracks stadium in Gombe.
The Academy won the competition after defeating Landa Boys Football Academy of Gombe State.
The tournament which is named Professor Muhammed Bello Abubakar’s, tournament is sponsored by Galaxy Backbone Limited to raise awareness about its services and efforts being made to support young entrepreneurs in the state.
Speaking shortly before the presentation of prizes to various winners, Abubakar, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Galaxy Backbone Limited said the tournament would be an annual event to encourage young talents in football as well as present them with the various opportunities that abound in Information and Communications Technology.
Represented by Mr Ibrahim Bello-Dukku, the Regional Coordinator-in-charge of Northeast and Plateau State of the agency, Abubakar said part of the reasons for organising the tournament was to create awareness on how young entrepreneurs could leverage data and connectivity to grow their businesses and become self-employed.
“A lot of businesses and entrepreneurs are finding it difficult to have access to cheap data and affordable internet connectivity, so this is why we established regional offices to bring the services to the door of our teeming youth.
“ Today, through our various intervention and creating awareness, a lot of businesses in Gombe and other locations have picked up because they are close to cheap data,” he said.
He advised youths to embrace any initiative by the government to empower them, noting that such empowerment could change their stories and make them self-reliant entrepreneurs.
Football stakeholders who spoke at the event commended Galaxy Backbone Limited for bringing different youths together for them to showcase their talents, adding that such gesture was necessary to harness grassroots talents for the country.
Our correspondent reports that Abdulrahman Adamu’s lone goal in the 76th minute of the game was all Mailantarki Academy needed to clinch victory and walk away with the trophy.
Three players from Mailantarki Academy also got individual awards while A C Milan of Jeka defari won the prize for the second runner up.
