Ghana in the imminent future would want to change the narrative about performances at international competitions, mostly multi-sport events including the Olympic Games by winning medals.

With that goal in mind, a Youth Sports Excellence center is to be put up at Amasaman in the Greater Accra Region. The center, when completed will have a multi-purpose hall amongst other facilities. 

The need to help in the nation’s sports talent development and management has necessitated the establishment of A Youth Sports Excellence Center which can go a long way. 

The Ghana Olympic Committee’s constitution, which has some areas of uncertainty to deal with, is also expected to be strengthened in order to align with international best practices. 

All of these formed part of discussions between IOC President Thomas Bach and Ben Nunoo Mensah, the Ghana Olympic Committee President at Lausanne, Switzerland last week upon an invitation from the former. 

The discussion centered on three main thematic areas. The first was what Ghana could do to have a bit more access to Olympic Solidarity. Mr. Nunoo Mensah noted that “Ghana over the years has not accessed much from Olympic Solidarity. It was therefore prudent for the GOC president to be enlightened on what Ghana could do as a NOC to have more access to it.”

Olympic Solidarity helps the NOCs to develop their own structures through relevant and targeted programmes, which enables them not only to consolidate their place and role within the Olympic Movement in general and within their own national structures, but also to increase their autonomy and independence.

The second item for discussion had to do with the strengthening of the GOC’s constitution. Mr. Nunoo Mensah admits “there are a lot of grey areas in our constitution that need to be worked on.”

Strengthening the constitution of the GOC will strengthen its structures which will go a long way to help to reduce the legal tussles that bedevil the institution especially during electioneering periods. Communication forms a vital part of the core structure of every institution.

A robust and reliable communication front will further enhance the GOC brand in terms of information dissemination.

The GOC, therefore, intends to improve its communication department to make the institution more credible, reliable, and appealing to corporate Ghana and accepted by the masses.

During their sixty-five minute interaction in Lausanne, the two discussed development and support plans put forward by the GOC president and it is expected that there will be a lot more correspondence between the IOC and the GOC as Ben Nunoo Mensah awaits intends to hit the ground running on the various projects that were discussed between the two parties.

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