Director of the ECOWAS Youth and Sports Development Centre, Francis Chuks Njoaguani has disclosed the centre’s intention to raise funds to organize the 3rd edition of the ECOWAS Games.
The multi-disciplinary competition for West African countries has not been held since 2012.
During a four-day evaluation of ECOWAS Youth and Sports policies and strategic action plans in Accra, Chuks Njoaguani highlighted plans for the revival of the Games, which will require adequate funding to ensure its success.
“The ECOWAS games is still there. It’s one of our flagship programs. The last one was held as I said in Accra. We’re still looking for funding to be able to have the next edition,” he said.
“But, in the absence of the ECOWAS games, we have gone ahead to have the ECOWAS University games. We’ve gone ahead to have smaller games that require smaller funding in output, to be able to have them. But obviously, there are a lot of other activities going around. Sports is key to development and we cannot shy away from those things.”
The inaugural edition of the ECOWAS Games took place in Nigeria in 2010.
Ghana hosted the second edition from the 16th to the 22nd of June, 2012, with athletes competing in athletics, wrestling, handball, volleyball, and boxing.