Chairman of the Sekondi-Takoradi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as CEO of the Eff-Ess Group of companies, Ato Van-Ess has been elected as new president of the Ghana Basketball Association.

His election as president brings to an end the 11-year reign of David Ashong.

Delegated of the Ghana Basketball Association converged at the Accra Sports Stadium for its first congress since 2010 to elect itself new leaders.

Van-Ess, who led a team which consisted of Alex Kukula, Auroa Commodore-Toppar and Iddrisu Ayambire, watched as his team swept up all portfolios available in the association.

Alex Kukula was voted vice-president; administration and finance, Iddrisu Ayambire was elected as vice-president; Technical and Development Programmes while Aurora Commodore-Toppar was elected as Treasurer.

Van-Ess was up against Dr. Andre Kwasi-Kumah, and managed to pip Dr. Kwasi-Kumah to the position by accruing 14 of the 17 votes cast.

In an interview with Joy Sports, the new GBBA president expressed a desire to pull all on board to expand the limits of the game in the country.

“The feeling is great and it’s great because it’s not all about me or elected executives.  It’s about all stakeholders including everyone who has interest and can develop basketball. It’s an all-inclusive development and the feeling is great, everybody is involved,” Van-Ess said.

For the new GBBA president, the last two months of 2021 will prove crucial to him and his administration, as they seek to invest new energy into the local running of the sport.

For an association which has been unable to organize congress for more than a decade, Van-Ess sees the just-ended peaceful and successful organization as the big picture for basketball, and not his election as presidency.

“In basketball, we see it this way – that basketball has won. We are not going into the details of who won and how many votes. We have been able to have a successful congress, so we’ll all sit down – all the plans are scattered – consolidate the plans so we can have one for the next five years. We’ll also consolidate all the scattered regional constitutions and consolidate them into one.

“That will serve as a guideline for all of us to move and this is going to be done within the next two months because we will start year 1 from 2022. So these two months are going to be hot for all of us,” he said to Joy Sports.

In an earlier interview with Joy Sports ahead of the elections, Van-Ess revealed that top of the agenda for him will be to commence the highly anticipated national basketball league.

He also indicated that the GBBA will establish a national basketball training school to harness the development of the sport at the grass root and national level.