Accra, June 19, GNA - The Association of Africa Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) under the new leadership of General Lassana Palenfo will from next year, April, introduce zonal sporting events in the continent.

The idea is to unearth sporting talents in the African continent in a bid to enhance the performance of continent on the international front.

General Palenfo who outlined his plans on his four-year tenure of office, told the GNA Sports in an interview that all the seven zones under ANOCA would engage in both inter and intra sports competitions annually with athletics, which is the mother sports Olympics as the major focus.

He however, noted that an extensive research would be conducted to determine which disciplines are well rooted in the various zones so as to give them serious attention when organizing the zonal competitions. General Palenfo said the strategy, if well implemented would put the continent on the right pedestal for achieving of honours at international events.

He said training centres would also be established to enable the newly discovered talents at the annual ANOCA games to have the opportunity to further develop their talents.

The Ivorian said the projects would be carried out with funding from the Olympic solidarity Fund and corperate sponsorship. On corruption, the President-elect pledged to weed out the canker by putting in place strict auditing services in the accounts of the Association and its sister national associations.

"There will be permanent control and auditing of our accounts on moneys given to the various national associations and bodies to embark on projects on the continent". General Palenfo said that the executive body will also conduct frequent follow ups to member countries to inspect projects that are funded by ANOCA to ensure that monies meant for specific projects are not channelled into other areas.

He said that, "a lot of lessons have been learnt in the past and we are challenged to keep a clean record of our accounts because this is the only way we can gain the confidence of the corperate world to support the development of sports in the continent". General Plalenfo also stated his desire to tap the knowledge of the other contestants for the position to ensure the development of sports in Africa.

"I would be ready to work with them, if they are also willing to offer us their services and rich experience". 19 June 05