Minister for Youth and Sports, Hon. Mustapha Ussif is optimistic the facilities assigned to be used for the upcoming African games willl be completed on time before the scheduled date for the games.
Mr. Mustapha Ussif during the recent inspection of the facilities at the University of Ghana refuted claims of Ghana struggling to meet deadlines, with regard to the facilities and is hopeful there won’t be postponement of the games this time around.
In an exclusive interview with Univers Sports after the inspection at UG, the minister briefed the media on the progress of the work on the various facilities designated for the games.
“We are on track and we will ensure that the contractors complete the facilities on time for us to do the testing. The contractor indicated that we are almost 70 per cent in completion, the game village is almost 85 percent so we can assure the media that we will finish the facilities and do the testing before the games. The grassing will not even take a month for us to be able to complete it so it’s not a major challenge at all. We can make recommendations to the contractors to improve on where there are deficiencies. so that there will be enough time for testing and the facilities will also be ready for the games,” he told Univers Sports.
The Youth and Sports Minister further expressed his gratitude to the University of Ghana for their immense role in this project and went ahead to provide updates on the facilities at Borteyman.
“We thank the University of Ghana for this huge support and partnership with the Ministry of youth and Sports and the LOC in our quest to provide the facilities that are required for hosting and organizing the games. Before we started this project we did indicate that we have decided to go with the hybrid approach meaning we work on existing facilities and new facilities that we don’t have, the existing facility we are talking about is the University of Ghana stadium which is here. we have upgraded it to include the VVIP stands the pressmen will have a very beautiful place in the VVIP where you can do your work. Aside that the game village all the facilities are ongoing we have the cafeteria, we have the medical room, we have the kitchen, we have also the sanitation area”
” If you go to Borteyman where we are working on the new facilities, We are building a first-class aquatic center and this will include a 10-lane competition pool, a warm-up pool which is 8-lane a multipurpose hall 1000 seater with VIP seats and another tennis court. One of which covers a spectator stand with VIP seating” he disclosed.
The African Games (Accra 2023) is expected to draw more than 5 billion viewers from around the world, making it potentially the biggest event in the competition’s history. Ghana has competed in the continental games since 1965, but this is the first time it has had the honour of hosting the competitions. Accra 2023 is scheduled to kick off from March 8 – March 23, 2024.
Story by: Rashad Usman Sinah
