NSC MULLS ESTABLISHING ANTI-DOPING LABORATORY ..... Explores Collaboration With African Medical Centre Of Excellence Towards Advancing Sports Medicine

"Nigeria is a founding member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) since 1999 so we should be a leader in this regard." Dikko.

...... "But for some reasons, we have not been able to live up to this expectation for so long until the coming of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu."

Mallam Shehu Dikko, Chairman of the National Sports Commission, NSC on Friday June 20, 2025 inspected facilities at the recently inaugurated African Medical Centre of Excellence (AMCE) in Abuja.

This is in its quest to establish an Anti-Doping Laboratory in Nigeria and in furtherance of the Anti-Doping Act recently signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The visit to the world-class hospital and research facility, funded by the AFREXIM Bank with clear objective to provide world-class medical services to Africa and reverse medical tourism and run in partnership with King's College Hospital, London, afforded the NSC Chairman the opportunity to explore possible collaborations that would not just facilitate the establishment of the Anti-Doping Laboratory, but deepen sports medicine in the country. 

Mallam Dikko laid the foundation for the collaboration thus, "Nigeria is a founding member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) since 1999 so we should be a leader in this regard. But for some reasons we have not been able to live up to this expectation for so long until the coming of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR who not only ensured the prompt conclusion of all process and signed the Anti-Doping Act after more than 20 years of delay but is also mandating the NSC to set up a world-class anti-doping lab that would not only serve Nigeria but also serve Africa and beyond. Furthermore in compliance with the Anti-Doping Act, work is ongoing to set up an independent Anti-Doping Agency to make sure that all the WADA benchmarks are adhered to and Nigeria is fully compliant. 

"Mr. President recently signed the Anti-Doping bill into law, so there is now a dedicated desk for this. We are taking it a step higher to set up the Anti-Doping Laboratory in Nigeria. There is only one such lab in Africa located in South Africa but it has been closed down. So technically, Africa has no operational Anti-Doping lab at present and every country has to do at least 1,500 tests every year. African countries, Nigeria inclusive, now take their samples to Qatar and their likes. 

"So we have been working earnestly to set up this lab as mandated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR. But we have to make sure that we don't fall short of the WADA standards because first and foremost it has to be independent and situated outside a sports arena, in a hospital or research institute etc and must undergo strict process of certification and approvals by WADA. This is why we are here. We want to see if we can site a lab in this complex or somewhere nearby so that we can partner with the technical expertise you have here to get it fully operational as envisaged.

"Secondly, if you already have a lab here that meets the requirements, why not? Or you can upgrade it and we agree a process and arrangements where additional equipment and facilities specific to Anti-Doping would be provided to make the lab compliant and surpassed the WADA requirements. So we can have a private collaboration here. You operate the lab and we work in partnership to get the certification from WADA and the lab can be a commercialized by opening to all. Imagine if the whole of Africa and beyond, should come here to do their testing yearly which clearly aligns with the vision of AMCE. It will have a huge economic impact for the country across many sectors."

Responding, the Chief Executive Officer of the Center Mr. Brian Deaver expressed optimism that the collaboration would fly. He enthused that with the state-of-the-art facilities at AMCE, it was set up for such collaborations, pointing out that they are global in outlook and are excited to work with NSC not just on Anti-Doping but also sports medicine generally as well as other possibilities to advance sports including joint marketing. 

The NSC delegation was later led on a comprehensive tour of the facilities by the Chief Operating Officer, of AMCE, Dr. Anshul Govila. 

This was an exploratory visit as both parties agreed to set up a joint team to sit and work out modalities that will bring the anticipated collaboration to fruition.

This was contained in a statement issued and signed by Dr (Mrs) Kehinde Ajayi, the Director Information and Public Relations of the National Sports Commission NSC.

21/6/25