The spangling building housing the offices of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), Commonwealth Games Authority (GCA) and other state organisations in Accra, has finally been officially named the ‘Olympic House.’
This was the upshot of a recent follow-up meeting between the Ben Nunoo Mensah-led GOC/GCA, its Board and President Nana AddoDankwa Akufo Addo – who gave the Olympic outfit thumbs-up for the christening.
In 2009, the Ministry of Works and Housing (MWH) made a pledge to the GOC to name the same building in appreciation of its strenuous efforts in acquiring the land and part of the structure that is currently housing a number of state organisations.
This came to light last Saturday when the GOC/CGA held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) stakeholders meeting at the National Hockey Stadium in Accra.
According to Mr NunooMensah, who chaired the Meeting, the MWH has engaged the services of a facility manager, Messrs K and Associates to manage the Olympic House on request of the Ministry – and have been given temporal office space at the GOC office to facilitate their work.
In last Saturday’s gathering, which was attended by representatives from the National Sports Authority (NSA), Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS), National Federation Heads and scores of delegates, was basically to review the committee’s constitution, discuss and deliberate on issues as regards sports to development and brief the members on work progress on the Olympafrica infrastructure atAmasaman.
OlympAfrica Project
Speaking on the progress of the infrastructure, Mr Nunoo Mensah recalled that the five-man committee put together to see to the development of the Amasaman project, started work in earnest in December 2022 “in order to beat the deadline by which the $100,000 sent to the GOC would have been withdrawn by the OlympAfrica Foundation (OAF).”
“The architecture drawings of the project has been done and paid for, and so far,the football field with a basic running tracks around it has been completed; the tennis court and the multi-purpose court are also about 40 percent completed.”
He said, an amount of $50,000 has so far been spent on the project and per the nature of the OlympAfrica (OAF) funding, the GOC must also raise about 30 per cent of its own funding to supplement the funds from the OAF, tasking the committee members to work on securing additional sponsors for the project.
Mr Nunoo said the GOC/CGA has mapped up a strategic plan of engaging various individuals, experts and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to add on to the draft and come up with a very comprehensive plan for the organisation which in their next AGM would be shared with all members for their output.
He mentioned that the Board has sorted and received the consent of two persons namely Mr Ken Dzirasah and Mr Peter Zwennes to be added to be members of the Constitutional Review Committee, hoping that Congress can move with the inauguration and the necessary terms and references for their work to start.
Asafa Powell visit
The GOC spoke on the “successful” visit of Jamaican international sports icon, Asafa Powell, who through the invitation of the GOC, visited Ghana from March 1-8, 2023.
He said whilst in the country, Powell met and engaged with some basic schools in the less-endowed communities, and encouraged them to keep working hard, since he comes from a similar background; adding that the former star sprinter made a strong case for support from government and sponsors for the so-called least financed sports.
On Ghana’s participation in international games, Mr Nunoo Mensah said the GOC/CGA was working with the International Games and Competition Committee (IGCC) of the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MOYS) to ensure the country was well represented at all the forthcoming events.
“The collaboration with the Ministry has been very successful so far, and it is our hope that it would eventually reflect in a massive improvement in the numbers and quality of Ghana’s participation at these events.
“The African Beach Games, the Commonwealth Youth Games, the African and Olympic Games in 2024 are the immediate games of concern, and we hope the various CDMs and their working team will ensure that our timelines are met and work together with the IGCC and the MOYS on securing funds and sponsorship for our preparation and participation at these games,” he added.
With regard to support for national federations and athletes, Mr Nunoo Mensah stated that continental and national grants or funding from the IOC were given out on quadrennial (Olympic Year) basis – that is,every four years.
GOC’s financial support for Games
He said in the last quadrennial, that is the 2016-2020 Olympic year, the GOC in addition to its financial support for the Bahamas 2017 Games, Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, Cape Verde Beach Games Covid relief and the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, the GOC also within the quadrennial year supported the various national federations with various amounts of funding which were disbursed on two tranches in 2017 and 2019.
“In the first tranche, an amount of $150,000 was given to the federations to help them with their various qualifiers and programmes for 2017, where the amount varied from $20,000 to $1,000 per federation.The second tranche with an amount of $126.716 was also disbursed to 19 national federations in addition to 14 scholarships to national team athletes.”
He added that in the current quadrennial, 2021-2024 not (2020-2024 due to Covid), the GOC has so far secured scholarships for 10 national team athletes and also secured a $100,000 under the Continental Athlete Support Grant which is spread over the period of 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Mr Nunoo Mensah disclosed that there were federations who were due for funding based on their application activities, previously supported under the various programmes of the Olympic Solidarity (OS).
Financial support for federations
The beneficiary federations are Ghana Judo Association ($11, 830), Ghana Weightlifting Federation ($2,230),Ghana Golf Association ($5,557), Ghana Swimming Association ($8,250), Handball Association of Ghana ($6,407) all in 2022 – as well as the Ghana Fencing Association ($10,000), Triathlon Federation ($2,000), Ghana Basketball Association ($8,000) and Ghana Basketball and Softball Association ($5,000) in 2023.
According to the GOC, it secured $25,000 approval under the Youth Athletic Development grant to disburse to a number of federations and associations each year until 2024.
The beneficiaries are: Ghana Table Tennis Association ($6,250), Ghana Karate Do Federation ($2,500) and the Ghana Tennis Federation ($10,000) in 2022.
The rest are Ghana Athletics Association ($8,000), Ghana Cycling Federation ($10,000), Netball Federation of Ghana ($5,000), Ghana Boxing Federation ($10,000) and the Ghana Badminton Association ($6,000).
Mr Nunoo Mensah explained that disbursement for the year 2023 was yet to be done basically because some federations who received funding in 2022“were yet to furnish the GOC with their receipts, financial and technical reports in order to forward same to the Olympic Solidarity.”
Reminders
The GOC prevailed on the various federations to respond to several reminders so it can do the needful and receive the 2023 funding as well as the 25 percent balance due on the 2022 funding.
He thanked the Executive Board and Federation Heads for their huge support to their athletes and Team Ghana, urging the stakeholders to continue to work together to help the youth to live their dreams and create a meaningful future for themselves.
BY JOHN VIGAH & LINUS SIAW NARTEY
