Sports ministry to develop technical base

Accra, Dec 27, GNA - The ministry of Education, Youth and Sports will henceforth emphasise the development of a solid technical base through the utilisation of technical co-operation agreements between Ghana and her oversees friends.

Alhaji Rashid Bawa, Minister of State in charge of Education, Youth and Sports told the GNA Sports in an appraisal interview on Christmas eve, that such a move would enable Ghana to train many coaches oversees and bring some foreign ones to work in the country.

He said the ministry would exploit its cordial relationship with countries, which have modern facilities for the training of sports coaches in order to produce a reservoir of local coaches that would be sent to the regions and the districts to discover and groom talent. The minister mentioned Cuba, China, the United States, France, Germany and Britain as some of those countries, which could help Ghana broaden her base in the development of trainers.

Alhaji Bawa said the ministry had been spearheading moves to reintroduce annual competitions between Ghana and Nigerian and Cote d'Ivoire to provide athletes from the sub region a platform to compete among themselves and develop their talents for major international competitions.

He said the bilateral games would expand to include other countries in the sub region to redefine the importance of sports as a unifying factor.

The minister said a strong and proactive West African Football Union (WAFU) would be able to attract corporate capital into its competitions to compare with COSAFA, which pays big bonuses for participation in its regional competitions.

He said the reintroduction of the Security Services Sports Association (SESSA) Games over the last two years is an integral part of the new sporting calendar aimed at aiding its accelerated development. "In addition to that, we have brought back the annual inter schools and colleges sports and even some universities in the country have started awarding credits for sports."

Alhaji Bawa said grass root development held the ace to Ghana's sports redemption, adding that school and colleges and community sports would expose the hidden talents and bring them out to benefit from modern techniques in training.

He said the hosting of CAN 2008 would provide a glut of sporting facilities because the enthusiasm being shown by corporate organisations indicated that every region would get a standard stadium complex to accommodate every sporting discipline.

The minister assured that construction work would begin in earnest early in 2005 so that Ghana would be within the time frame to host the Cup of African Nations in 2008 without any hitches.