By Edna A. Quansah, GNA
Accra, July 29, GNA- Mr. Ben Nunoo-Mensah, the President of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) has secured 11 sponsors for the committee in his two-year administration.
He said this during the GOC’s first Annual General Meeting (AGM) held yesterday at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA). This was the maiden AGM after he took the mantle from Prof. Francis Dodoo two years ago.
In his report, the President said some of the achievements chalked under his administration adding that “as any human institution, there has been some achievements and challenges but I can confidently say that our achievements far outnumber our challenges”.
He said that, when he took over from his predecessor, the GOC had one headline sponsor which was Cocoa from Ghana, but currently the committee can boast of securing additional sponsorships from PaySwitch Ghana, McDan Group, Mobility International, Decker Engineering, Directline Risk Consult, Toyota Ghana, Ashfoam, Allied Oil, Republic Bank, Indomie and Twellium Industries.
He explained that the GOC would sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Toyota Ghana and Ashfoam Company Limited as the headline sponsors for 2020 and are also signing another MoU with Papaye to be the official Meal Sponsor for 2020.
He said “we are finalising talks with Pokoo Sports Wear of the UK to be the Official Kits Sponsor of the GOC for 2020 and renewable in September of 2020 for four years.
We secured sponsorship from PaySwitch Ghana Limited and paid the 2018 affiliation fees for the various National Sports Federations to their International federations”.
On the OlympAfrica project at Amasaman, Mr. Nunoo Mensah stated that his outfit has received about Ghc 45,000 sponsorship from Cocoa from Ghana and GH?50,000 sponsorship also from PaySwitch Ghana to invest into the project adding that “only GH8, 000 has so far been disbursed. I will put together a five-man committee very soon to continue with work at the site.”
On Ghana’s participation in international competitions, the GOC President who doubles as the Ghana Weightlifting Federation President said it was administration’s policy to support government in Team Ghana’s preparation and participation in all international games.
With this, he supported Ghana’s participation in the 2017 Bahamas Commonwealth Youth Games with $50,000.00 whilst Government spent $80,000 and fully paid for Ghana’s participation at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeonchang, South Korea and also supported the government with an amount of about $150,000 towards Ghana’s participation at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
The GOC again fully paid for Ghana’s participation in the 2018 Africa Youth Games in Algiers, Algeria as well as the first ever Africa Beach Games in Sal, Cape Verde in June this year.
Delegates at the congress voted for the acceptance of the committee’s financial statements and budget for the 2019/2020 calendar year and also voted for the acceptance of Triathlon and Armwrestling as an Olympic Sport.