President Nana Akufo-Addo
Government set to construct its first Olympic sports complex with 50,000 seating capacity.
The stadium will also have a multi-purpose sports holes for all Indoor Sports, aquatic centers for swimming and Tennis Courts.
This is to enable the country host the 13 African Games to be hosted by and in Ghana in August 2023.
President Akufo-Addo who made the announcement at the inauguration of a nine-member Local Organising Committee (LOC) chaired by veteran Sports Broadcaster, Dr Kwaku Ofosu Asare revealed government’s intention to convert the facility into a Sports and Development University a year after the said Olympic games.
“It is the vision of government for the purpose of sustainability to convert the Olympic sports facilities to be used for the 13th African games into a University for Sports Development” was how he put it.
In anticipation of this, the Olympic Stadium complex is set to have an Administration block, hostel facilities, bungalows for senior officials, lecture and research facilities and equipment.
It is therefore the vision and determination of the Akufo-Addo-led NPP administration to organize what they hope to be “the best ever African games and to establish the first ever University of Sports for development in West Africa and the second University of Sports for development in Africa.”
That, he said culminated in the need to select carefully and appoint members of a local organizing committee who have the capacity to organize a successful African games, develop a curriculum and recruit and train the necessary manpower required for the successful take off of the University of Sports for development in 2024.”
“I have no doubt that they can organize and produce one of the best African games competitions in the history of the games and help the country regain her pride of place among the elite sporting nations in Africa”, he emphasised.
The President was of the conviction that the hosting of the African games provides Ghana as a country an excellent opportunity to showcase to the world the country should be the preferred destination for the organization and hosting of international sporting events.
Other members of the LOC include Dr. Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah who was a Member and Secretary to the 2016 NPP Transitional Team on Youth and Sports and the current Technical Advisor on Sports at the Ministry as Chief Operating Officer (COO).
He is Deputised by former Olympian and an accomplished Sports Events
Organizer, Reks Brobby with Dr. Beatrice Dwumfour Williams, Clinical Psychologist and University Lecturer who is also a Board Member of the National Sports Authority as member.
The rest include Dan Kwaku Yeboah – Sports Journalist, Ahmed Osumanu – Communication Consultant to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ben Nunoo Mensah. President, Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), lawyer Eva Okyere, a former sports journalist and management member of the female national soccer team, the Black Queens as well as Joyce Datsa, a Sports Administrator.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent