The Chairman of the 2023 African Games Local Organizing Committee, Dr. Kwaku Ofosu Asare, has expressed disagreement with claims, that Ghana’s financial capacity is inadequate for hosting the multi-disciplinary event.
He asserts that the games, present the country with a prime opportunity to enhance its sporting infrastructure, despite the government’s appeal for a $3-billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bolster the economy.
Dr. Kwaku Ofosu Asare expressed these sentiments while speaking to Citi Sports on the sidelines of the launch of Ghana’s Fastest Human.
“People talk about, why are you having the African games in this crunching period?
These tough times, why don’t you use the money for other things opportunity cost?
But the problem is that if we don’t do it now, these facilities will never be created for us.
We will never be built for us and we have we don’t have to over-concentrate on football.
We’ve done that for years since 1982, I mean, we all love football.
But we need to also be looking at other disciplines.
And the African gives is giving us the opportunity for us to shift the focus from football to the other lesser disciplines, [like] athletics, boxing Judo karate-do handball basketball hockey and all that.
So this competition the African games is also creating an opportunity for us to stimulate our economy for jobs to be created.”
The 2023 African Games, due to take place in Ghana has been moved to next year because of economic pressures, delays in preparations, and acrimony amongst key stakeholders.
The 13th Edition of the Games is scheduled for March 8 to 23, 2024.