The Sports Minister-designate Mustapha Ussif has revealed the government’s plan to convert the 2023 African Games village to a sports university.

Ussif said at his vetting on Thursday that the facility, which works hasn’t commenced yet despite the multi-sport event starting in two years, will be converted into University for Sports Development.

As part of plans to host a successful event, the government announced that a 50,000-capacity stadium, with an estimated cost of $200 million, will be built at Borteyman in the Greater Accra Region.

The facility will come along with a games village to host the over 4000 athletes.

“The [Olympic Village] will be an entirely new facility we’ll put up for the All Africa Games but after the Games, we have to utilise the facility.

“The government’s policy is that we will turn the facility into a University for Sports Development.

“In the whole of West Africa, we have no such university. What we have currently is a College in Winneba but we want to use this opportunity to set up a University which will be the second of its kind in the whole of Africa. That is the policy direction of government.”

Ghana won the rights to host the popular multi-sport event for the first time ahead of Nigeria and Burkina Faso in 2018.

It is expected that the 13th edition of the games will be held in three cities – Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast – with dates yet to be confirmed.

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