The Airtel Rising Stars competition ended last Sunday with Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions winning in the girls’ and boys’ divisions respectively. Fabulous ladies from the Ashanti region crushed Soccer Intellectuals from the Central region on a 4-2 penalty kick out, after their game ended goalless. The Brong Ahafo boys beat their counterparts from Upper East region by a lone goal. Airtel Rising Stars is a pan-African soccer talent programme that focuses on identifying and nurturing budding soccer talents from the grassroots onto a national stage. It also provides a platform for upcoming soccer talents under age seventeen to showcase their skills to leading scouts and coaches as well as having an opportunity to improve their football skills. The initiative, which kicked off in August this year targeted boys and girls in all ten regions of the country. Twelve male teams and six female teams engaged in a two-day national competition at the El-wak stadium on Saturday after which the four teams – two male and two female – qualified for the finals. A number of former national football stars - Yaw Preko, Willie Brown, Abdul Midjima, Kelvin Essien, Ben Owu, Emmanuel Duah, Ali Jahraa, Dan Addo, Samuel Osei-Kufuor and Nii Odartey Lamptey, [ambassadors of the 'Airtel Rising Stars' programme] – opened the final day of the tournament with a spectacular performance with the staff of Airtel Ghana. For their hardwork, Fabulous ladies were presented with a cheque of GHS 2,000. The overall best player award went to Priscilla Okyere. The Brong Ahafo boys also earned the same amount of money. Six individuals (4 Boys and 2 girls) will get a chance to attend the Airtel Rising Stars Football Camp in Capetown (South Africa). Commenting on the turn of events, Mr Minral Roy, Chief Executive Officer of Airtel Ghana noted that : “Our next step is to fulfill our promise of sending them to a soccer clinic in Cape Town, South Africa, that will be run under the guidance of the South African Sports Science Institute.” “We are sure they will be in excellent hands and that the experience they will gain will be invaluable in their efforts to achieve world class standards.” Education Minister Betty Mould-Iddrisu, who graced the occasion, said the government would support various initiatives aimed at widening the scope available for people to fully exploit their potentials. She urged other corporate organisations to imitate Airtel by supporting such initiatives.