Olayemi CardosoThe Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Abuja branch last weekend won the 42nd edition of the CBN Governor’s Cup.CBN Abuja is the defending champion of the competition.The branch defeated its Lagos counterpart with 3-1 to lift the trophy for the 7th time at the Ilorin township stadium.The match was 1-1 in the first half before the Abuja team increased the tally by two goals in the second half.Bauchi branch had on Friday won the bronze defeating Ilorin 3-2 after a pulsating 2-2 draw.The Fair Play Award was given by Ilorin CBN through Godwin Olusegun Adeoye.Since the maiden competition in 1981, CBN Abuja won it in 1998, 1999, 2001, 2008, 2009, 2022 and 2023.The Lagos branch which lost last year final to Abuja has won it a record 10th time.
This year’s finals was also preceded by an All Female Novelty Football Match.Speaking at the finals of the competition, the CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso, said the competition which involved all the branches and the Head Office, kicked off in eight centers: Akure, Ilorin, Abakaliki, Kano, Kaduna, Gombe, Enugu and Makurdi with the preliminaries played between July 10 to August 17, 2023.Cardoso, represented by Head, Employee Relations and Welfare Division of the Human Resources Department, Mrs.
Brenda Daurang, said the competition is aimed at encouraging social relationships between staff and maintaining healthy workforce through sporting activities.
The Guardian learnt that the winners of the finals received a trophy, gold medals and N2 million.The second and third place team went home with silver and bronze medals as well as N1.5 million and N1 million respectively.