Africa Press-Nigeria:
The sports sector has a pervasive influence in the lives of people either directly or indirectly.
In my previous article, I focused on football as a potential source of economic dividends, not only to the individual participants, but to the nation as a whole.
However, if justice is to be done to this important area, it is critical that the potential economic value of sport be looked at holistically.
This will enable stakeholders and decision-makers to focus on sport as a source of income generation and associated benefits such as putting Zimbabwe on the global map and positioning the country to benefit from sports tourism.
It may be asked, how Zimbabwe fares in terms of treating sports across the board as a potential source of economic rejuvenation. The answer to this question will emerge around a discussion of the areas listed below.
Sports value
It is heartening to note that the Government adopted a national Sports and Recreation Policy in August 2016 which was inclusive in its orientation and acknowledged the importance of sport as a mega business.
The policy acknowledged that the world sporting industry was worth US$620 billion in 2016.
This implied that as a country we had to put in place measures to ensure that we also benefited from this amount.
This policy was to be reviewed after five years. However, three years down the line, it cannot be said to be unfair if one was to ask how much progress sport has made in terms of benefiting from the US$620 billion industry?
