REPORT BY PRESIDENT OF THE GHANA OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (GOC)/ COMMONWEALTH GAMES ASSOCIATION(CGA), MR BEN NUNOO MENSAH AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2020 AT THE ACCRA HOCKEY STADIUM
Members of the Ghana Olympic Committee,
Representatives from the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the National Sports Authority,
National Federation Heads and Representatives,
Members of the media,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you all very much for making the time to come meet again to discuss our passion, “sports” and the best way to move it to the next level.
We had initially planned to have this session in April or May of 2020 but as you all know the Covid pandemic and its resultant lock down and restrictions did not make it possible for us to do so, even holding it now has its challenges, a few of our members have expressed their misgiving about an in-person meeting, but our democratic system allows the majority to carry the day. I will however appeal to all of you to keep your mask on and observe the necessary Covid protocols.
ADMINISTRATION
The various communication channels and administrative structures created in the first year of our administration has enhanced administrative efficiency at the GOC. Also the quest to ensure that an elective change at the GOC/CGA is no longer seen as a coup d’état (as it has been in the past) has encouraged the staff of the GOC/CGA to become less partisan and more professional in their work.
I will still encourage them to continue to give their loyalty to the GOC/CGA as an institution, irrespective of who the elected officers or board members are at a given time, and not to be partisan in our elections.
INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE (IOC)
The GOC continues to enjoy an extremely good relationship with the IOC, whose support to our National Federations (NFs), athletes and coaches through the Olympic Solidarity programme has been tremendous.
We will continue to build on that relationship to maximise their overall support to the development of sports in Ghana.
COMMONWEALTH GAMES FEDERATION (CGF)
The CGF has been very supportive of the CGA during the year under review, the employment of an intern for the CGA to help with marketing and various training programmes for our NFs and media attaché, has helped to create the necessary mileage and exposure for some of our NFs.
The recent workshop on the use of Social Media as a Branding Tool for our NFs was powered by the CGF.
ASSOCIATION OF NATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEES IN AFRICA (ANOCA)
ANOCA’s huge financial supports to us and our various NFs have more often than not been the last hope for most federations to be able to go to their International championships and qualifiers.
ANOCA’s recent grant of about $90,000.00 enabled our NFs and teams like Meteors (football), Rugby, Fencing, Weightlifting, Taekwondo, Boxing, Athletics, Swimming, Table Tennis, Badminton and many others to show up at their various Olympic qualifying events.
TOKYO 2020
The Corona pandemic did not make it possible to host the games in July, 2020 as originally proposed, the games will now be held from 23rd July, 2021 to the 8th August, 2021. The GOC together with the Ghana Embassy in Japan has secured a Pre-Games camping base for Team Ghana in the city of Inawashiro in Japan.
We have so far qualified 4 athletes, 2 from Boxing and 2 from Athletics. In addition to more athletes qualifying from these two disciplines, we are also hoping to secure qualification slots from Weightlifting, Swimming, Volley, Badminton and Judo.
It is the hope of the GOC that we should be able to raise enough funding from our sponsors and partners to ensure a hitch-free preparation for and participation at the games. Our current projected budget of about $360,000.00 dollars is far from being achieved and I will like to take the opportunity to appeal to corporate institutions like GCB, NLA, BOST, Ghana Gas, GNPC, Twellium Industries, Toyota, Ashfoam, JAYKAY Industries, Samsung and many others who have the development of the Ghanaian youth at heart, to come on board and support our various sporting disciplines and events like the Tokyo 2020.
One of the greatest black athletes of all times, Asafa Powel from Jamaica has agreed to visit Ghana in the middle of February, 2021 to help the GOC create the necessary awareness and hype on the games and ginger support for Team Ghana. Asafa is related to me and Ghana by marriage and will also take the opportunity to touch base with the motherland.
CAPACITY BUILDING
The GOC/CGA has embarked on an aggressive capacity building agenda for our coaches, administrators, media attaché and NF members. Unfortunately, our various technical courses for 2020 had to be rescheduled to 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.
In the spirit of building capacity for various persons involve in sports development, my administration adopted a strategy to ensure that as many Federation executives, administrators and media persons are selected as officers for different International games and championships, that is why for Bahamas 2017 we had Messrs Mawuko Afadzinu (Tennis), Theo Edzie (Swimming) and Benedict Owusu (Joy fm) as the selected officials. For the Winter Olympic Games in Korea in 2018 we had Hon. Jerry Shaib (Special Olympics) as CDM and George Addo (Scrabbles) to assist.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games in Goldcoast had Messrs Mohammed Sohnoon as CDM, with other assisting officers as Messrs Cilian Welsh (Shooting), Melvin Brown (Karate Do), Nana Mankata (Sports for all), Dennis Moore(Cycling) and Ken Adade as the media person.
The 2018 African Youth Games in Algeria had Mr. Albert Frimpong (Baseball) as CDM, Mr. Fred Otu (Taekwondo) as leader of delegation, with Nana Mankata as Team Manager and Mr. Isaac Worlanyo (Rainbow fm) as media attaché.
For the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Messrs Evan Yeboah (Badminton), Isaac Duah (Tennis) and Nana Mankata (Sports for all) were the officers with Mrs. Baaba Tandoh (Multi Media Group) as the media attaché.
The 2019 African Beach Games in Cape Verde had Messrs Steve Asante Bekoe (Rowing), Yaw Ampofo Ankrah (Beach Soccer) as the selected officers and Mr. Michael Okuley (GTV) as the accompanying media person.
Rev. Richmond Quarcoe (Squash), Emmanuel Tuffuor, Melom Brown (Karate Do) and Nana Mankata (Sports for all) were the CDM, DCDM, Head of security and TM respectively at the 2019 African Games in Morocco whilst Mr. Gabriel Obu (Zylofone fm) was the accompanying media attaché.
Tokyo 2020 will have Messrs Mike Aggrey(Golf), Mohammed Mahadi(Fencing), Jones Nfodzo and Melvin Brown(Karate Do) as officers with Messrs Sammy Heywood Okine, Theo Sampah (GTV), Romeo Oduro (Peace) and Maurice Quansah (Graphic) as media persons.
This is also my personal way of ensuring that the few opportunities that exist at the GOC/CGA are shared (without any discrimination) by as many people as possible and not just a few.
We intend to build capacity for as many members as possible, so these persons can impact knowledge and help with any future games organisation in the country.
SUPPORT FOR NATIONAL FEDERATIONS (NFs)
One of the key focus of my administration is, giving financial assistance to the various NFs. In 2019/2020 the GOC gave to the various NFs a total of $126,716.00 to help with their qualifiers and or as Development Grants.
The breakdown is as follows;
• Ghana Football Association – $ 8,000.00
• Ghana Fencing Association – $ 5,943.00
• Ghana Badminton Association – $ 7,540.00
• Ghana Shooting – $ 3,000.00
• Ghana Rugby – $ 8,000.00
• Ghana Taekwondo – $31,443.00
• Ghana Cycling – $ 5,930.00
• Ghana Karate Do – $ 4,930.00
• Ghana Weightlifting – $ 8,000.00
• Amateur Boxing – $14,800.00
• Women Commission – $ 430.00
• Ghana Squash – $ 910.00
• Women in Sports – $ 910.00
• Rowing and Canoeing – $ 930.00
• Ghana Baseball – $ 950.00
• Ghana Swimming Association – $ 5,000.00
• Ghana Volleyball – $ 5,000.00
• Ghana Table Tennis Federation – $ 5,000.00
• Ghana Athletics Association – $10,000.00
These financial supports to the NFs have made it possible for some of their athletes to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
SUPPORT TO NATIONAL TEAM ATHLETES
The GOC currently has 14 National team athletes on the GOC/IOC Scholarship programme; this will ensure some financial support to these athletes all the way to the end of the Olympics in Tokyo.
The breakdown per disciplines for the 2019 and 2020 financial year are;
• 7 Athletes from Ghana Athletics with a total scholarship of $90,000.00
• 3 Athletes from Ghana Boxing with a total scholarship of $30,000.00
• 2 Athletes from Ghana Weightlifting with a total scholarship of $30,000.00
• 1 Athlete from Ghana Judo with a scholarship of $15,000.00
• 1 Athlete from Ghana Shooting with a scholarship of $15,000.00
The GOC also initiated and facilitated the payment of monthly allowance of Ȼ500.00 to 1,500 National Team athletes under the MOYS/YEA financial support scheme.
These financial support and Scholarship have enabled our National Team athletes to focus and have funding for their competitions and upkeep.
WOMEN’S COMMISSION
As a major requirement by the IOC, the GOC inaugurated a Women’s Commission chaired by Ms. Elizabeth King, to champion issues on gender equality and the development of girls and women in sports.
The commission has a membership which cuts across all the various women groupings in the country and it is the hope of the GOC that its impact will begin to be felt at all levels of our society.
OLYMPAFRICA PROJECT (AMASAMAN)
The biggest drawback to our development of the Amasaman (now known as Afiaman) project is Ownership of the Land, even though we managed to construct a wall around the said land, we never really had any legal rights or title to the land. Our ownership had only existed by word of mouth, the allocation of the land to us by the Ministry of Agriculture was deem to be illegal since they had no right to give out government land and making it worse, there was no single letter to the GOC from the Ministry on the transaction. But colleagues today, it is with a lot of joy that I wish to inform you that the Government of Ghana through its custodian of government lands in Ghana, the Lands commission has by a letter of 23rd October, 2020 (and its accompanying site plan) allocated 16.574 acre of the parcel of land at Amasaman in Greater Accra to the Ghana Olympic Committee for the purpose of Sports and Recreation.
I wish to thank His Excellency the Vice President, Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, the Honorable Minister for Youth and Sports, Mr. Isaac Asiamah, the Late Chief Director at the MOYS, Mr. Frank Quist, The Executive Secretary of the Lands Commission, Alhaji Sulemana Mahama, Board members, Hon. Jerry Shaib and Nii Adote Din Barima and last but definitely not the least, Hon. B.T Baba, the past President of the GOC, whose vision to construct a huge Stadium-like wall around the land even without any ownership documents, helped in the land being finally allocated to the GOC.
We have notified the IOC and the OlympAfrica Foundation, who have now agreed to allocate $150,000.00 in its 2021 budget for investment into the Amasaman Centre.
CONCLUSION
On behalf of the Executive Board, the officers and various sub committees of the GOC, I wish to thank members of congress for contributing in no small way to make the GOC what it is today. We will continue to work hard together and ensure that our tenure will see a lot of landmark achievements for our youth and for our sports.
Thank you.
From Sammy Heywood Okine