President Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday demonstrated that Ghana’s perennial penalty woes is a matter that needs urgent attention when he missed his own penalty at the inauguration of the Madina Sports Complex in Accra.

Member of Parliament for the Madina Constituency in the Greater Accra Region, Abu-Bakar Saddique Boniface was at his agile best when he dived and saved the president’s penalty kick.

The penalty side-show was part of activities to officially open the ultra-modern astro turf facility which has been constructed by the Inner-City & Zongo Development Ministry with technical assistance from the Sports Ministry.

In a very colorful ceremony witnessed by hundreds of people from the Madina community as well as dignitaries from the GFA, Sports Ministry and the Inner-City & Zongo Development Ministry, the president was left impressed by the quality of the facility and called for it to be well maintained for the benefit of all.

“This is a very happy occasion, usually we are not supposed to do things like this at night but I think this one survives the night. It does very well. Let me thank everybody beginning with the MP who as a minister had the vision for these things and his successor as well as the dynamic, young Municipal Chief Executive and also to Wembly Construction Company Limited who are the contractors for the project.

There is not a lot to be said because this is a good facility and I hope it will be well looked after and maintained and allow us to discover more and more Ghanaian talents. My only regret is that I was unable to put the penalty past Boniface Saddique. That is the only thing that upset me that he saved my penalty. But we will try it again,” Nana Addo said amid smiles.

The Madina Sports Complex has a multipurpose court, 5- aside pitch, basketball court, changing room, public washroom, CCTV camera installation with control rooms and floodlights.

It will be recalled that the Black Stars used the facility as a training base during their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations double header against South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe last month.

The Madina Sports Complex project was supervised by Ghana's Market Leaders in Artificial football turf Construction and management, Wembley Sports Construction Co. Ltd and is the single biggest Artificial Sports Complex with astro turf. It’s among three of such projects in some selected Zongo Communities.