A delegation of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 12th African Games to be hosted by Morocco this August at Rabat, met with Ghana 2023 Project Team on the sidelines of the recent 6th AIPS Africa Conference held in Accra.

The delegation led by Mustapha Elbayoudi, the LOC’s Press Attaché, explored various areas Ghana’s Team would benefit from best practices and participate in the coming Games by attending all pre-events as well as the Games itself as partners in the organisation and administration of the Games.

He stressed on the fact of the Games being a touristic attraction, especially as it coincides with the peak season and implored the Ghana Team to use their co-hosting approach to reposition the selected cities on the global market through the Games.

On behalf of the Rabat 2019 LOC, he extended an open invitation to the Ghana 2023 Project Team to see the Games primarily as an African platform for Africans, organised and hosted by Africans and therefore looked forward to greater participation by all the nations of Africa.

Dr Emmanuel Owusu-Ansah, the Technical Advisor (Sports) at Ghana’s Ministry of Youth and Sports and member of the Ghana 2023 Project Team, thanked the delegation for accepting to explore further collaboration between the two host nations of the Games to strengthen its brand globally.

He assured the LOC of Ghana’s total participation in the Games as it will assist the nation to build on the success story of 2019 to showcase even better Games in 2023.

Dr Owusu-Ansah intimated that the Ministry will look forward to other areas outside sports, especially the youth sector, towards empowering future generations of both nations to be more than competitive globally in all fields of endeavour.

President of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), Mr Ben Nunoo-Mensah, a member of the Ghana 2023 Project Team, also added his voice to the call for greater collaboration between the two nations and stressed that it was important for the Games to give the African youth the opportunity to express themselves as well as develop their talents not only on the continent but also at the Olympics in 2020 Tokyo.

Mr Magnus Rex Danquah, a sport business expert and the CEO of the Ghana 2023 Project Team in his contribution, re-emphasised the need for African nations not to see themselves as so much in competition, but consider the possibilities of joining forces to bid to co-host, say a future Olympic Games or FIFA World Cup “as these offer the next stage in our collective desire to showcase our joint capacities, talents and skills as equals on the world stage, given every possibility against rest of the world”.

He reiterated the fact it was one of the considerations at the 3rd Specialised Technical Committee for Youth, Culture and Sport (STC-YCS-3) of the African Union Commission Meeting held in October last year at Algiers, Algeria.

The Ghana 2023 CEO assured the Moroccan delegation of the readiness of Ghana to place its expertise in those areas of competitive advantage, so that Africa co-hosts the next Olympic Games to give the youth more opportunities to develop and grow their talents.