GAC Motors splashes N100m on Access Bank/Lagos City marathon

A few weeks after splashing a whopping N800 million on Asaba 2018 CAA African Senior Athletics Championships, the management of GAC Motors, one of China’s largest automakers, yesterday entered a N100 million partnership with organisers of the Access bank/Lagos City marathon.

The deal, according to the Marketing Manager of CIG Motors, Kayode Adejumo was part of the company’s efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s athletics.

“GAC Motors believes in improvement, and we are partnering with the Access Bank/Lagos City Marathon to give to Nigerians our quality services,” said Adejumo, whose grandfather, Alhaji Raheem Adejumo, was a former president of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC).

Speaking on the partnership with GAC Motors yesterday, the Chief Executive Officer of Nilayo Sports Management Limited, Bukola Olopade, whose company brokered the deal, said that the coming of GAC Motors would add more glamour to the 2018 and other editions of the marathon.

“When we came here with Governor Okowa of Delta State a few weeks ago for the sponsorship of the Asaba 2018 CAA African Senior Athletics Championship, there was a whisper that GAC was coming into the Access Bank/Lagos City Marathon. Today, we are very happy to witness this ceremony, and I want to assure the management of GAC Motors that they are in partnership with the right people.

“This N100 million-all-in kind partnership is a welcome development for the marathon because it will go a long way in increasing the zeal and determination of many Nigerians to be part of the race. The management of GAC Motors decided on its own to come up with this ideal of giving two cars to two Nigerian winners in a 10k race, and we see it as a perfect one because not all participants who started the 42k race usually get to the finish line.”

Olopade added that all Nigerian professional marathon runners have been banned from taking part in the 10k race, where a male and female winner will emerge for the brand new GAC car worth N7 million each.

Present at yesterday’s partnership deal with Access bank/Lagos City marathon was the General Manager CIG Motors, Ricky Lee, and other top management officers of the compan