Former and current members of NilePet Board of Directors (NilePet/Facebook).

The National Oil Company Nilepet has approved the establishment of a football club under its sponsorship in a bid to encourage companies to invest in the sports sector.

The initiative was announced in Juba on Saturday and a steering committee has been formed to facilitate the formation of the Sports Club.

NilePet Board of Directors has also approved the paperwork presented by the head of the steering committee Makur Koryom.

The state-owned oil corporation says it will form different sports clubs including basketball, volleyball, handball, and athletics.

Speaking on Eye Radio’s weekend Sports Show on Sunday, Koryom said NilePet will start with the football sector before forming other sports clubs soon.

“Very soon there, we will be sports and cultural social club in Juba town under Nile Pet name,’ Koryom said.

“Our idea is to start with football and very soon we will have a club in Konyokonyo league, NilePet club and the steering committee are already in place.”

“After we finish the formation then general assembly of Nile pet club will sit and they will decide who will be the chairman and all member of Nile pet club will be put in place that day.”

Koryom also said the soon-to-be-formed football club will have a huge benefit to NilePet as its name will be branded in the region.

He has encouraged other companies operating in the country to join the initiative and support the sports industry.

“We have a lot of objectives that we laid down in our vision, the most important is a branding Nile Pet name, we need NilePet to be known in Africa like other companies.”

“We have now Azam in the east Africa as the company is now operational through football, even we in South Sudan we know Azam, we know it as the football club, and we know it is a company.”

South Sudan’s football industry is suffering from an acute shortage of finance as it is severely underfunded.

This has left several clubs struggling to book the barest necessities of travel including tickets and accommodation when representing the country in the region and the African continent.