Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News.
Speaker 2: Polo. It's known as the sport of kings, but in
Speaker 2: Nigeria it's become the sport of business kings. The polo
Speaker 2: field provides another forum for business giants to battle, and
Speaker 2: even government ministers and global giants like Coca Cola are
Speaker 2: getting in on the act.
Speaker 3: It's a sport where you can meet people. I think
Speaker 3: it was the famous Prime Minister Winston Churchill that said
Speaker 3: polo is a passport to the world.
Speaker 2: On today's podcast, we'll look at how playing polo has
Speaker 2: become an essential part of doing business and whether victories
Speaker 2: on the field are translating to higher profits.
Speaker 4: And this is money listening on in action, he goes
Speaker 4: all the way, sixty, taughty, dirty, he does it.
Speaker 2: I'm Jennifer's Ambasaja and this is the Next Africa Podcast,
Speaker 2: bringing you one story each week from the continent driving
Speaker 2: the future of global growth with the context only Bloomberg
Speaker 2: can provide. Joining me today is Bloomberg's reporter tiwa Adebayo,
Speaker 2: who is also a polo player. We should note tiwa
Speaker 2: thanks so much for joining us. Let's just get right
Speaker 2: into it, talk about how polo became such a big
Speaker 2: sport in Nigeria.
Speaker 4: Well, the thing to know about polo in Nigeria is
Speaker 4: that it's actually almost as old as the country itself.
Speaker 4: It was brought over by British military personnel. It was
Speaker 4: first played by the Cavalry. The first match actually happened
Speaker 4: in Lagos in nineteen oh four. But it's a very
Speaker 4: big sport and it's played by a lot of individuals.
Speaker 4: It's growing in Nigeria. There's around twenty seven different polo clubs.
Speaker 4: There's thirty three different playing fields, from josh Badon to Lagos.
Speaker 4: The Lagos Polo Club is definitely the eminent club, not
Speaker 4: just in Nigeria but also in Africa as well. It's
Speaker 4: where the highest handycap polo tournament in Africa's played. Highest
Speaker 4: handicap meaning is where the best players, the highest ranked
Speaker 4: players in the world play. The Lagos Polo Club itself
Speaker 4: has around four hundred members. Now there's about seven hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty active players in Nigeria as a whole. So
Speaker 4: it may come as a surprise to people in the West,
Speaker 4: perhaps in Europe, that polo is as big and people
Speaker 4: are as passionate about it in Nigeria and across the
Speaker 4: continent in Africa as well and Tia.
Speaker 2: I should admit my knowledge of polo is very limited.
Speaker 2: I know a bit about it. There was a special
Speaker 2: on Netflix actually I think it was produced by Printeria
Speaker 2: and the Duchess, but I don't know much about it.
Speaker 2: What I do know is that it is quite expensive
Speaker 2: though for people who do play it. Who is paying
Speaker 2: for it in some of these clubs in Nigeria.
Speaker 4: Well, to really get an understanding of who's paying for it,
Speaker 4: you need to understand a bit about the rules of
Speaker 4: polo and the culture surrounding the game. So just a
Speaker 4: little crash course, on every team, there's four players and
Speaker 4: one of those players is usually someone called the patron,
Speaker 4: and that person is responsible for funding the team. They
Speaker 4: pay the tournament entry. They usually own the horses that
Speaker 4: you play with, or they rent the horses. Sometimes they'll
Speaker 4: bring in a professional player as well, so they'll pay
Speaker 4: those fees and they're essentially responsible for making sure it's
Speaker 4: all paid for and it all goes through. So that's
Speaker 4: how a lot of it is finance. But there's also
Speaker 4: the corporate involvement as well, So in Nigeria specifically, there's
Speaker 4: very large involvement by financial services companies, notably GT Bank
Speaker 4: in Nigeria, the title sponsor of the Legos International Polo
Speaker 4: Tournament this year. They've been sponsoring polo tournaments for around
Speaker 4: eighteen years. You also have Chapel Hill Denim there's another
Speaker 4: title sponsor. Companies and charities as well use so there's
Speaker 4: a lot of different sources of funding that go into
Speaker 4: the sport. But crucially, when I've been speaking to people,
Speaker 4: what they're saying is that the sponsorship is growing and
Speaker 4: it's also changing in shape. So it might have started
Speaker 4: off as these companies financing polo tournaments as a way
Speaker 4: to entertain their private wealth clients, for example, bringing people
Speaker 4: to the polo it's usually a long day out and
Speaker 4: you can have drinks at the bar in between the matches,
Speaker 4: so it's a good way to entertain corporate clients. But
Speaker 4: they've moved from doing this to actually sponsoring the tournaments
Speaker 4: in a more traditional way that you might expect of
Speaker 4: a football tournament for example, So having their logos up
Speaker 4: around the polo field and having their branding crucially on
Speaker 4: the live streams of these polo tournaments. That's another area
Speaker 4: that the game is expanding into The Lagos International Polo
Speaker 4: Tournament was streamed on YouTube this year and it has
Speaker 4: been done for a couple of years. So the sport
Speaker 4: is expanding, and what I've been told is that these
Speaker 4: brands are really using it as a visibility platform and
Speaker 4: they're trying to attach themselves to this label of premium
Speaker 4: level entertainment and luxury, which is a very lucrative market,
Speaker 4: especially for the financial services sector.
Speaker 2: How important is it then for these businesses? I mean
Speaker 2: you mentioned how it's growing. Clearly they believe they have
Speaker 2: a client tell that they could tap into. How is
Speaker 2: it being seen as a business tool for some of
Speaker 2: these companies.
Speaker 4: Well, I did a bit of research into this to
Speaker 4: find out kind of why they put their sponsorship and
Speaker 4: really their name behind these tournaments and actually GT Bank
Speaker 4: they've described the Lagos International Polo Tournament played at Lagos
Speaker 4: Polo Club as a staple in Nigeria's sporting and social
Speaker 4: calendar and they say they remain committed to driving positive
Speaker 4: change with it and also the impact and fostering of
Speaker 4: community of the sport. So it's clear they see a
Speaker 4: lot of different avenues with which they can grow brand
Speaker 4: and it's no surprise as well that the clientele that
Speaker 4: play polo are very useful for them. So just in
Speaker 4: the Lagos Polo Club alone, in its members it counts
Speaker 4: the Finance Minister of Nigeria, lat Edgen for example, Cola
Speaker 4: Kareem famously the CEO of Shoreline. I spoke to him
Speaker 4: before this recording as well. He actually owns a polo
Speaker 4: team called Showline Polo, so he described it as a
Speaker 4: sort of natural extension of his company as it were,
Speaker 4: He's a polo fanatic, one of the highest ranked players
Speaker 4: that isn't professional in the country, so it's useful for
Speaker 4: them to have access to these people. And the way
Speaker 4: it's been described to me is that if one of
Speaker 4: these companies were to set up a billboard, for example,
Speaker 4: on the side of the road, maybe twenty percent of
Speaker 4: the people that passed that billboard would be relevant the
Speaker 4: target market that they're trying to reach. But with polo,
Speaker 4: as the former president of Legos Polo Club Adele told me,
Speaker 4: they can guarantee really that eighty percent of the clientele
Speaker 4: will be the people that they're trying to speak to.
Speaker 4: I spoke to the commercial director of the Africa Polo Network,
Speaker 4: Mercedi Molasiwa and he told me just how lucrative the
Speaker 4: sponsorship mark is a polo is.
Speaker 1: It's modest, but in quantums of millions of let's say
Speaker 1: South African rands. Because these are private or they're not
Speaker 1: really that public. I'm giving you an estimation in the
Speaker 1: you know, anything ranging between three to five million rands
Speaker 1: South African rands for Netbank. The point out I do
Speaker 1: want to say is that what we have observed is
Speaker 1: that once the corporate sponsor is on board, you do
Speaker 1: see an increasing level of investment in the quality of
Speaker 1: the tournament experience. With every passing year, the level of
Speaker 1: investment in the tournament increases and it's visible.
Speaker 2: And do you stick with us? When we come back,
Speaker 2: we'll hear more about the songe power role that polo
Speaker 2: is playing and how it can potentially spill off of
Speaker 2: the field and into the boardroom.
Speaker 4: We'll be right back.
Speaker 2: Welcome back. Today. We're looking at the role polo is
Speaker 2: playing amongst Nigeria's business elite. Tiwa Atabayo is still with me, Tia,
Speaker 2: You've been speaking to some of Legos's polo playing community.
Speaker 2: Talk more about what they were telling you.
Speaker 4: Well, I had a really fascinating conversation with Cola Kareem,
Speaker 4: who is the CEO of Shoreline Energy and also the
Speaker 4: owner of Shoreline Polo. So I asked him basically, what
Speaker 4: is the business case for Shoreline Polo. Shoreline and it's
Speaker 4: one of the leading energy and infrastructure companies across Africa,
Speaker 4: and he says to me that actually the Shoreline Polo
Speaker 4: team as it were, has kind of always existed. So
Speaker 4: he plays the sport, his sons play the sport. He
Speaker 4: mentioned siblings that play it, so it wasn't a sort
Speaker 4: of surprise to formalize that into a funded, fully funded
Speaker 4: polo operation. He told me that there's this real association
Speaker 4: between polo and excellence, and so it's no surprise that
Speaker 4: he'd want to associate his brand with that. We also
Speaker 4: spoke a bit about how Polo can act as a
Speaker 4: bridge between Africa and perhaps countries in the West and
Speaker 4: even in the Middle East in terms of business links.
Speaker 4: Cola Kareem has recently been appointed as to the advisory
Speaker 4: board of British American Tobacco and he said to me
Speaker 4: that working with these companies outside of Africa, he's able
Speaker 4: to use Polo as a point of reference and a
Speaker 4: global platform, as he described it, to bounce off of.
Speaker 4: So I think it's really interesting at how polo is
Speaker 4: building links between different countries but also within Africa. I
Speaker 4: was speaking to Adeleyier, who is the former president of
Speaker 4: the Lagos Polo Club.
Speaker 3: It's a sport where you can meet people. I think
Speaker 3: it was the famous Prime Minister Winston Churchill that said
Speaker 3: polo is a passport to the world. The Nairobi and
Speaker 3: Legos Club now have a yearly competition where we go
Speaker 3: to Nairabia and play and they come to Legos and play,
Speaker 3: and that alone has fostered social and economical benefits for
Speaker 3: both sides. We also play the Heritage Cup at Guards
Speaker 3: in England. The Heritage Cup is based on the Commonwealth
Speaker 3: teams playing together playing in England, not already not only
Speaker 3: Foster's Commonwealth relationship, but of course there'll be businesses there
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 4: So it seems like it's a force that brings people together,
Speaker 4: as many sports do. And the president of the Polo
Speaker 4: Africa Polo Network said to me that they see the
Speaker 4: sport growing into something akin to golf or Formula one
Speaker 4: for example, a sport that is perhaps targeted at a
Speaker 4: premium market, but with a very broad appeal as well.
Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting that you mentioned a game like golf, right.
Speaker 2: You just take a look at some of the deals
Speaker 2: that have reportedly been done on the golf course, some
Speaker 2: of the present and then I want name names that
Speaker 2: prefer to spend a lot of time on the golf
Speaker 2: course and the business that has got done historically. Could
Speaker 2: that now the role that we've seen golf play could
Speaker 2: pull those step in and sort of fill that void
Speaker 2: at least in Legos or in some parts of Africa.
Speaker 4: Well, it does seem to be going that way one
Speaker 4: because of the clientele, but crucially there is a networking
Speaker 4: element as well, because it's not just the players that
Speaker 4: make up the game of polo. To have a polo team,
Speaker 4: you need an extensive team of grooms to look after
Speaker 4: the horses. And those are often people who perhaps don't
Speaker 4: come from those same circles of world leaders and CEOs,
Speaker 4: but they have a love for horses that is shared
Speaker 4: between them. For example, Cola Kareem's Shoreline polo team this
Speaker 4: year have actually been playing with a groom. So that
Speaker 4: groom the talent was recognized and he was moved up
Speaker 4: into the team, and I've been speaking to various players
Speaker 4: throughout the scene who have said to me that they've
Speaker 4: seen grooms sponsored to complete their master's studies, for example,
Speaker 4: and then go on to work in financial institutions with
Speaker 4: their patron and it can definitely change one's life. They
Speaker 4: can enter into an industry which they may not have
Speaker 4: been exposed to, and it does remind me of the
Speaker 4: game of golf. Actually, you hear often about people that
Speaker 4: were caddies in golf and got speaking to business leaders
Speaker 4: or portfolio managers and were offered internships. So it seems
Speaker 4: like there is that same spirit of networking and entrepreneurship
Speaker 4: that goes on in polo as well as in golf,
Speaker 4: and it's growing in popularity, especially in Nigeria.
Speaker 2: Which is why it would make sense for big global
Speaker 2: giants like Coca Cola and others to get in on this.
Speaker 4: Right absolutely, Coca Cola has a polo team that plays
Speaker 4: in Nigeria that bears the Coca Cola branding. Then you
Speaker 4: have teams like MSD Baby Bear that is owned by
Speaker 4: the Dan Goto's Cola. Kareem tells me that there is
Speaker 4: a fierce rivalry between a Shoreline Polo Team and Steve
Speaker 4: Babybaar obviously two big magnates of the energy sector within Africa.
Speaker 4: That rivalry definitely spills onto the polo field as well,
Speaker 4: and he spoke to me about the real desire to
Speaker 4: win because you're playing with the company's name emblazoned across you.
Speaker 4: But something else that's really compelling I think about polo
Speaker 4: is Cola Karine put it to me and said, there's
Speaker 4: only two things that stop people from playing polo. It's
Speaker 4: fear and the second one is death. So it's a
Speaker 4: very dangerous sport. But I'm told that that camaraderie that
Speaker 4: you build because you have to trust your teammates to
Speaker 4: such an extent, makes it easier to have dealings in
Speaker 4: the business world because these are people that you really
Speaker 4: get to know on a quite an intimate basis and
Speaker 4: in a very high pressure, intense and often stressful game.
Speaker 2: I mean, those are two very legitimate reasons to not
Speaker 2: play this absolutely just saying how competitive are we getting here?
Speaker 4: It's definitely something that a lot of resources are being
Speaker 4: being poured into. There is talk about building polo fields
Speaker 4: in Issamine, just outside Legos, which is going to be
Speaker 4: a very big tourist area as well. That development's going
Speaker 4: on there, but they want to as well as growing
Speaker 4: the tourist attractions, they also want to grow the game
Speaker 4: of polo alongside that, because it's clear that there's appetite
Speaker 4: for it to watch the game, to be involved in it,
Speaker 4: not just people that play it, people that are passionate
Speaker 4: about horses and passionate about watching too. So you're definitely
Speaker 4: seeing a very competitive level of the sport. But that
Speaker 4: is the thing about polo. It's one of the very
Speaker 4: few sports that you can't pretend to play because at
Speaker 4: the end of the day you have to get on
Speaker 4: a horse and go at about thirty miles an hour
Speaker 4: and also hit a ball at the same time. And
Speaker 4: I can tell you from experience it's definitely not easy
Speaker 4: and it's not always the safest, shall we say.
Speaker 2: And thanks again to Bloomberg's tiwa Adebayo for that reporting.
Speaker 2: And here's a few other stories we've been following across
Speaker 2: the region. This week, Sudan's army recaptured the national capital
Speaker 2: from the Rapid Support Forces militia, a turning point in
Speaker 2: a two year civil war that's drawn in outside powers
Speaker 2: and torn the resource rich North African country apart. The
Speaker 2: advance is a major blow for the RSF, which had
Speaker 2: seized control of swaths of Khartoum and the rest of
Speaker 2: the nation after the eruption in April twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: of a conflict that may have killed as many as
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty thousand people. And South Africa, with
Speaker 2: the help of the World Bank, has a three billion
Speaker 2: dollar plan to reverse the decline in services and infrastructure
Speaker 2: in eight of its biggest cities. It will use a
Speaker 2: one billion dollar loan from the World Bank coupled with
Speaker 2: two billion of government money to finance grants for cities
Speaker 2: including Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town that meet targets in
Speaker 2: providing water, sanitation, electricity, and solid waste processing under a
Speaker 2: new government program. And you can follow these stories across Bloomberg,
Speaker 2: including the Next African Newsletter. We'll put a link to
Speaker 2: that in the show notes. This program was produced by
Speaker 2: Adrian Bradley. Don't forget to follow and review the show
Speaker 2: wherever you usually get your podcasts. I'm Jennifer Zabasanja. Thanks
Speaker 2: as always for listening.