Nigeria's federal centre of excellence for sport.

The need for the formalised training of coaches was felt after Nigeria's exposure to the Olympic Games of 1952, but it was much later that a serious effort was made at harmonising the various sporadic coaching clinics across the country.

In November 1972, the Executive Committee of the National Sports Commission (NSC) officially endorsed the establishment of an Institute for the training of coaches, sports organisers and other sports functionaries. A Technical Sub-committee was set up to study the training programmes of Eastern European countries, and an agreement was reached with the Government of Germany on technical co-operation. Top Physical and Health Education professionals from Nigerian universities, alongside national and state coaches, were invited to Lagos to draw up a coaching programme for the country. The exercise was later concluded at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), marking the beginning of pilot courses organised under the auspices of the National Institute for Sports (NIS) at three centres — the Universities of Ife and Ibadan, and the Ogbe Stadium, Benin.

Early in 1976, two German experts — Mr. Hoerst Beyer and Professor H. Dubberke — were dispatched to Nigeria. Together with Mr. Heinz Marotzke, already in country, and Dr. Awoture Eleyae, then Principal of NIS, they reviewed the Institute's curriculum while construction on the NIS building had already begun. By May 1, 1975, the Executive Committee of the NSC had promoted Dr. Eleyae to Deputy Director of Sports and Principal of the National Institute for Sports. The team experimented with eight sports across three centres — the University of Ibadan (Tennis and Wrestling), Ogbe Stadium Benin (Swimming) and the University of Ife (Athletics, Football, Gymnastics, Boxing, Volleyball and Weightlifting), involving 280 participants.

In 1987, the Minister for Sports, Air Vice Marshall Bayo Lawal (Rtd), set up a panel to look into the NIS challenges and make suggestions for improvement. Its 1988 report expanded the curricula to a uniform period of nine months for all courses and changed the headship of the Institute from Principal to Director.

In 2002, the 1988 report was reviewed to meet accreditation requirements. The Expert Assessors' recommendations, adopted by Council, restructured the courses to durations ranging from 12 to 24 months for Diploma and Higher Diploma programmes, depending on entry qualifications.

The Institute's bilateral relationship with the Australian government (2001–2002) brought about the establishment of the Athlete Development Programme. NIS was subsequently organised into two arms — the Education / Research Centre in Lagos (the headquarters), and the Athlete Development Centre in Abuja, established to discover, harness and nurture young talented athletes into high-performing elite athletes.