The maiden edition of the Civil Service Inter-ministerial football competition, kicked off at the Accra Sports Stadium on Friday with 32 teams competing for glory.
The event to end on July 28 forms part of activities to mark this year’s Civil Service Week celebrations.
Launching the event, the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Evans Opoku Bobie in a speech read on his behalf by the Director, Human Resource Management at the ministry, Mr. Eric Mensah-Bonsu urged participating ministries to take the opportunity to exercise, stay healthy and build relationships.
“Sports and tournaments are fun and provide opportunities to develop skills and relationships with others as well as a platform for networking and socialisation,” he stated.
He said values of such tournaments promotes punctuality, patience, discipline, teamwork and dedication which are vital to the civil service.
He pledged the Ministry’s support throughout the tournament and asked organizers to include traditional sports like ludo, oware and ampe in subsequent years.
On his part, Head of the Civil Service, Nana Kwasi Agyemang-Dwamena called for a collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Sports to make the event an annual one.
“In order to improve productivity and enhance service delivery, there is the need to have a healthy and sound civil service to undertake this transformation. A healthy civil service will result in a wealthy nation,” he stated.
He urged participating teams to be disciplined and take advantage of the opportunity to develop their skills, both on and off the field.
He urged captains of the teams to guide their players to avoid any form of violence and consider the tournament as a fun event with the aim of building relationships.
BY MICHAEL D.ABAYATEYE
