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Work is to resume by the end of July this year on the abandoned Amasaman Community Sports Complex in the Ga West District of the Greater Accra Region.
To pave the way for the resumption of work on the abandoned project, the Ghana OIympic Committee (GOC) is already working in earnest to ensure all the requisite documents on the project site are ready.
Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) President, Ben Nunoo Mensah made the disclosure about their internal preparations when he took the Executive Director of OlympiAfrica, Alassane Diack, on a tour of the project site at Amasaman last Wednesday to acquaint himself with its current state.
Work on the multi-purpose sports complex was initiated by the GOC over a decade ago but had to be put on hold because the GOC then did not meet certain specifications by OlympiAfrica. As a result, the project had not seen any progress since the last five years.
Mr Nunoo Mensah said with the election of a new GOC board, the Association of National Olympic Committees in Africa (ANOCA) had renewed its active interest in Ghana, as well as the project which reached its highest level during the GOC presidency of Mr B.T. Baba, but attention on the project sharply declined in the last five years.
“The centre if completed would have been a home for talent identification and sporting excellence for the youth of this country, but the project has grounded to halt in the last five to six years initially due to a few design and technical disagreements, and subsequently the lack of interest by the GOC to re-engage ANOCA within that period,” the GOC president told the media during the tour of the project site. He said this time the GOC would be open, transparent and accountable.
He also gave a hint that the GOC would soon introduce a Youth Olympics competition across the country to whip up the interest of pupils at the basic school level in sports.
During an interaction with the media at the GOC boardroom, Mr Diack who was accompanied on the trip by the Regional Director of OlympiAfrica, Thon Philippe, explained why he had to stop work on the project, saying “the philosophy of OlympiAfrica behind such initiatives is to build community sports centres which would nurture children of the communities into responsible citizens.”
He commended the current GOC president for showing personal interest in the project and going ahead to convince the President of ANOCA, General Lassane Palenfo to reactivate the funding of the project through its foundation OlympiAfrica.
He said OlympiAfrica was ready to provide the funding of US $150,000 provided the GOC worked quickly enough to meet its requirement.
