Stakeholders in Nigerian table tennis have again identified the challenges limiting the performance of the country’s players at global tournaments and highlighted ways to bridge the gap between Nigeria and the world’s top nations, The PUNCH reports.
This comes on the heels of Nigeria’s below-par outing at the 2026 International Table Tennis Federation World Championship in London, where both the men’s and women’s teams failed to progress beyond the preliminary and group stages, respectively.
While the men’s team, led by Quadri Aruna, managed wins against Saudi Arabia and South Africa in the group stage, they were eliminated by eternal rivals Egypt in the preliminary round.
The women’s team lost all their group matches against Wales, Australia and Uzbekistan, raising concerns about their ability to compete consistently at the highest level.
President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Adetayo Soji, praised the Nigerian contingent for their resilience but noted that the sport in the country is heavily affected by economic factors.
“They are playing well in Nigeria; they have conquered Africa and it’s time to see the world. We have a disadvantage, but we shouldn’t be worried about that. The North African countries are close to Europe and it costs only $200 to go and play in Europe.
“But if we want to take our players to go and play in Europe, that ticket alone will cost us about $1,200. We just have to make do with what we have,” Soji told The PUNCH.
President of ITTF Africa and Executive Vice President of the ITTF, Wahid Oshodi, maintained that the federation cannot fund the athletes alone.
“We have a lot of work to do and the NTTF can’t fund this alone. They need a lot of support to develop these players to the top. The reason there are not many of them at the highest level is that they are not playing enough tournaments. What gives me hope again is talent, but it takes much more than that,” Oshodi said.
While Nigeria has consistently produced talents at the youth level, the Chief Operating Officer of the Africa Table Tennis Federation, Kweku Tandoh, faulted the lack of attention paid to factors that would aid the transition of players from amateur to elite level.
“It’s a process and it must be followed with proper coaching education. We must have the right coaches and the application of the required sports science like nutrition, psychology, coaching methodologies and others. We must have facilities. If we don’t have those things, it will be difficult to bridge that gap,” he said.
“What we have achieved so far in terms of performance is because most of our top stars are abroad and they have access to these things I mentioned. But that is not sustainable. Not all of them can be abroad, which is why we must put those things in place to have a sustainable production pipeline.”
In a bid to keep local talents active, NTTF president Soji hinted that the federation had organised a one-month training camp for young players ahead of this year’s African Youth Championships in Ghana.
“They will be back in camp soon for a one-month programme at Babcock University and we will have top-notch coaches working with them. Honestly, we have problems with the female team, but we also have young players who are doing well. We have been world champions at U-14 level before, but the question is what happens afterwards.
“We are also paying attention to coaching education so we can have coaches capable of training our players to meet international standards. One of the ways of encouraging our players is by bringing a tournament like the WTT Contender to Lagos.”
With the WTT Contender Lagos currently ongoing, stakeholders believe the availability of such tournaments will expose Nigerian talents to top global stars and improve their competitiveness.
