Ghana Olympic Committee gives $150,000 to federations

The Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) is supporting the various national sports federations with about $150,000 to enhance the development of their programmes.

This was confirmed in a letter signed by the first vice president of the GOC, Paul Atchoe, in respect of the disbursement of funds to both Olympic and non-Olympic sports federations which was sighted by the Graphic Sports.

The president of the GOC, Ben Nunoo Mensah, who corroborated the gesture explained that other disciplines which are not necessarily Olympic sports would also be given GH¢40,000 for their development, while those federations who would be taking part in the qualifiers for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in April next year would also be supported with funds to boost their preparations, as well as develop their respective federations.

The funds, according to Mr Nunoo Mensah, was mobilised from the GOC’s own coffers with the assistance of corporate organisations,while the GOC has also firmed up an agreement with Indomie to become its official food sponsor.

“As part of the sponsorship the Indomie company will give the GOC GH¢ 50,000 worth of apparel and GH¢10,000 worth of product respectively every year for the next four years which will even factor in the Tokyo Olympics in the year 2022,” he explained.

According to the GOC president a similar arrangenment for sponsorship was also ongoing with Twellium Ghana Limited, while his outfit was in discussion with the GNPC and COCOBOD to top up the $150,000 given by ANOCA to support the Olympic solidarity project at Amasaman.

He said as much as possible the GOC would want to do its best to complement the effort of government in supporting the travels of national teams since it could not leave the burden of sponsoring national teams on the Ministry of Youth and Sports alone.

He said the trend would continue till a time that the GOC, with its goodwill and credibility, would be able to fund national teams for international assignments on its own.

Touching on the administrative changes at the GOC secretariat, he said a new accountant and an administrative manager have been recruited to ensure the professional management of GOC affairs.