Dr Archibald Yao Letsa
The long-awaited Volta Regional Sports Committee and the 25 District Sports Units are now ready for official inauguration and rapid sports development and promotion in the neatest region of Ghana, the Volta Region.
It will be recalled that, way back on July 11, 2018, the first list of 16 newly-constituted District Sports Units out of the 25 Districts and the freshly composed seven-member Regional Sports Committee were forwarded by the Regional Sports Director, Mr Kwame Amponfi Jnr, to the Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, and the Director General of the National Sports Authority, Mr Abdul-Majeed Bawa, for approval by the Sports Minister.
Despite the initial challenges with some District Assemblies, by dint of hard work and perseverance, all is now set for the official inauguration of the seven-member Regional Sports Committee and all the 25 District Sports Units of the region by the Regional Minister at Ho.
The Regional Sports Committee, to be chaired by the Regional Minister; Dr Archibald Yao Letsa himself, has the following as members: Kwame Amponfi Jnr, Regional Sports Director, Atsutse Emmanuel, Jasikan District Sports Unit representative; Joseph Yogah Adovor, Akatsi South District Sports Unit representative; Ayivor Joe Justice, Ho Municipal Sports Unit representative; Dotse Bright Bennet and Enyonam Afi Amafugah, nominees of the Regional Minister.
Per the Sports Act, 2016 (Act 934), 21, the Regional Sports Committee is expected to, among other things; promote, encourage and develop sports throughout the region, coordinate the activities of the District Sports Units within the region in relation to the care, maintenance and provision of sports facilities in the region, assist in the organisation of Regional Sports Festival once every year, prepare and submit to the Authority returns on sporting activities in the region and perform any other function assigned by the Board.
As the Regional Sports Director, in my humble view, “ The good thing is that, irrespective of the initial challenges we faced with some District Assemblies during the composition of the Regional Sports Committee and the 25 District Sports Units, we stood our grounds and ensured that only physical education and sports graduate professionals with a minimum of five years sports work experience, got selected to serve on each of the 25 Sports Units for the region as National Sports Authority District Sports Directors, pending their permanent appointment or secondment.”
“Again, professionalism and meritocracy were not compromised for anything in the composition of the seven-member Regional Sports Committee, as four out of the seven are experienced post-graduate sports professionals with a minimum of 10 years sports work experience.
The Regional Minister himself, offering to chair the Regional Sports Committee, and the inclusion of a popular Ho-based Business Executive and a well-known philanthropist, Mr Joe Ayivor (aka Afe Lotto) tells it all on how seriously we mean business with the whole agenda of the new face of sports development and promotion in the Volta Region of Ghana.