Accra, Dec. 27, GNA - A multi-purpose sports centre is to be constructed in Sefwi Wiawso, in the Western Region, to serve as a recreational facility for the people and expatriates working in the natural resources sector in the area.

The GHc 164, 000, 00 facility, which would start in July, next year is expected to be completed in 2011.

The Centre would have a gymnasium, swimming pool, a bar, basket ball and lawn tennis courts, a table tennis hall and a massaging room, as well as a hostel.

The Sefwi Youth Association is undertaking the project. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency on Saturday at the first Congress of the Sefwi Youth Association in Accra to launch the construction of the facility, Mr Kwesi Fokuo Kudom, Organizer of the Association said its executive members proposed three projects but after a careful deliberation, settled on the sports complex, as the first to be implemented. Mr Fokuo Kudom said the other two projects that the Association would in due course embark on were the establishment of a University of Environmental Studies and Natural Resources at Sefwi Wiawso and a food processing factory at Sefwi Asawinso.

He said the sports complex was chosen as the first project because it would provide a conducive environment for workers, especially those in the natural resources sector, who always traveled to Kumasi for recreation, to stay in the town and spend part of their earnings there.

He said the facility would also serve as a health and fitness center for the residents as well as a recovery environment for accident victims. "It would boost tourism in the area since the Sefwi area abounds with several tourist attractions but they are not patronized because of the non-existent of a comfortable place for their recreation. Mr Fokuo Kudom said the Association was seriously raising funds and had received favourable responses in terms of cash donations from some Embassies in the country and government, for the start of the project. He said the Association would also be relying on the influence of some of its prominent sons such as Messers Ato Ahwoi and Kwesi Ahwoi, Professors Ivan Addae-Mensah and Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, amongst others, to raise enough funds for the projects.

He said the center would provide about 64 jobs for the youth in the area as well as other opportunities for the people in the town to raise their standard of living.

Sefwi-Wiawso is the seventh largest District in the Western Region, with a land area of 2,634 kilometers square and lies in the north-eastern part of the region and has a population of about 190,000. It abounds in natural resources including, gold and timber but unfortunately lacks several social amenities and has some of the bad roads in the country, which affect the transportation of the resources to urban centers.