Chief Operations Officer for the LOC. Dr. Emmanuel Owusu Ansah
The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) for the 13th Africa Games to be held in Ghana has disclosed they have saved Ghana a whooping US$ 800,000 due to the LOC’s excellent negotiation skills.
Countries that win the bid to host the Africa Games are required to pay an amount of US$2.5million to the African Union (AU) who are the owners of the Games, however, Ghana was able to negotiate her way through to beat down the cost to US$ 1.8million
Speaking in an interview with the GNA Sports, the Chief Operations Officer for the LOC. Dr. Emmanuel Owusu Ansah who confirmed the figure commended his members for the good job done.
He also revealed that broadcast rights sharing for the Games was 70 percent for the AU and 30 percent for the host nation, but they were able to make a deal of 65 percent to AU and 35 percent to Ghana.
Ghana would be represented by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Mustapha Ussif, and the AU are set to sign the protocol agreement on Monday, October 11, 2021, in Abuja, Nigeria.
Dr. Owusu Ansah mentioned that after the protocol agreement was signed, the LOC would launch the Games’ logo, mascot, and slogan to officially kick start activities lined up for the event.
In a related development, Dr. Kwaku Ofosu Asare the Executive Chairman of the LOC, has appealed to the Ghanaian media for support in hosting a successful event.
He made this call during an interactive session with members of the Sports Writer’ Association of Ghana (SWAG) last Friday at the Media Center of the Accra Sports Stadium.
He said about 25 sporting disciplines would be considered for the Games and the focus was to host and win, therefore they were in constant touch with the Technical Department of the National Sports Authority (NSA) to get quality athletes to represent the country.
Mr. Ofosu Asare confirmed that the University of Ghana, Legon had been settled on as the Games Village and that all necessary works that needed to be done would commence soon as well as other selected venues and sites for the Games.
He mentioned that about 17 sub-committees have been formed but would launch about five of them which are urgent and added that Ghana has made a few changes in the Games to suit the traditional and cultural values of the country.
If hosted, Ghana would join the likes of Congo Brazzaville, Mali, Nigeria, Algeria, Kenya, Egypt, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique and Morocco as countries that has hosted the Africa Games which was previously known as the All African Games.