The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has charged the various National Sports Federations (NSF) to reposition and review their respective calendars to make good use of the facilities constructed for the hosting of the African Games in March, this year.
This, he explained, would be a measure to avoid the menace of such facilities ending up as white elephants.
Dr Bawumia made the call on Friday when he addressed guests at the 48th Nguvu SWAG Awards ceremony held at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).
His call was in relation to the construction of the Borteyman Sports Complex – one of two venues for the African Games which has a world class aquatic centre with 10-lane competition pool, and another 10 lanes for warm up.
It also boast of a 1000-seater multi-purpose sports hall for indoor sports such as basketball, boxing, volleyball, handball and other indoor games with an additional five world-class tennis courts and many others.
Addition to that is the upgrade and near completion of the University of Ghana Sports Stadium which would also boost sports in the country.
He said often, especially on the African continent, such modern facilities that host international competitions end up as white elephants, mainly as a result of lack of maintenance and inadequate use.
But this, he observed, must not be the case for Ghana.
“I want to charge the various sports federations to revive their respective calendars and be more active, at both the grassroots and professional levels, and make good use of these facilities.”
“I have also been aware of recent concerns about the maintenance culture of our sports facilities, at both national, regional and local levels. Maintaining our sports facilities, which we spend millions to construct, should be as important as building the facilities,” he added.
To avoid those situations, Dr Bawumia called for the adoption of a modern approach to sports facilities management to ensure that Ghana maximise the full benefits of the facilities, and also maintain their standards.
According to the Vice President, the provision of new infrastructure and maintenance of existing ones were part of a broad sports vision to make Ghana a hub for sports tourism and training centre in West Africa.
But, that, he said “cannot be achieved if we do not build more infrastructure and also prioritise the maintenance of sports facilities, including the new ones we are building.”
Dr Bawumia stated that sports will always be an important aspect of the Ghanaian society due to its enormous socio-economic values.
“Sports has given Ghana immeasurable global exposure, just as it has lifted many from abject poverty to riches. Notwithstanding this, I believe we have not yet realised the full potentials Ghana sports has on offer. A lot has to be done to propel Ghana to realise its enormous benefits.”
He disclosed that six of the 10 sports stadiums, with multi-sports facilities and youth resource centre, were ready, with the Koforidua Sports Stadium already commissioned.
He said the remaining five would soon be commissioned, adding that the second phase of the other four under construction were expected to be completed this year.
BY ANDREW NORTEY
