Beyond golf in Ibadan
Aproud son of Ibadan and the spirit behind 3e Actuaries, a financial engineering and legal advisory company that specializes in developing and financing huge real estates, Olawale Opayinka, is all set to celebrate Ibadan and its people and chart new ways the city could be great again. Interestingly, Opayinka is relying on the game of golf to achieve his numerous purposes.
For one, Opayinka believes golf is one game that can bring world ‘heavies’ together and create such an atmosphere where societal ills could be well addressed. Again, Opayinka’s 3e Actuaries has a specialization in golf estates and the company has been at the heart of the development of the game of golf in Equatorial Guinea as a means of diversifying the economy of that country. Everything looks rosy for the total re-development of Ibadan through the game of golf.
And come next week, precisely from October 4 through October 8, Ibadan will be opened to a week-long golf activities that will veer into other cultural activities. The huge event is dubbed IMEGA 2017 and it shall host the Ibadan Mesi Ogo Open and Imega Awards.
About 400 golfers from across Nigeria will feature in this Open. Among them are some 100 golf professionals who will slug it out for a stunning ten million naira (N10m) in prize money. What makes this more interesting is that the Pros will be featuring for just the prize money. The event equally creates an avenue for just three of them to qualify for a 250,000 dollars 3e Actuaries Open that will hold in Mongomo, Equatorial Guinea between December 13 and 16. The Mongomo event will draw top 50 male pros and 30 female pros from across the world.
Highlight of the Open will be the Imega Awards night where Imega Heroes shall receive awards. It is already on the table that late individuals like Chief Lekan Salami and the prolific striker, Rashidi Yekini, will be remembered on the night.
“Ibadan used to be an economic hub in West Africa,” Opayinka said. “It has also been a place where many men and women have passed through on their path to achieving great things in Nigeria. We must restore Ibadan as an economic hub and one of the ways of doing this is to use the game of golf. The game of golf attracts decision makers, Chief Executives, high net worth individuals and local and international investors. I can assure you these are the people we are bringing to Ibadan through the whole of next week”.