Isaac Asiamah’s resource centers not completed nine months after deadline

Between March and May last year, Youth and Sports Minister Isaac Asiamah amid pomp and pageantry performed groundbreaking ceremonies for the construction of youth and sports centres in all ten regions of the country.

A common theme that ran through the Minister’s speeches at all the colourful ceremonies which were mostly graced by regional ministers, MPs and traditional rulers was the apparent lack of sports infrastructure and how much of a headache that was to the President.

"The government is committed to the development of the youth in particular and sports in general to ensure equal opportunities for all. We are committed to ensuring that an international standard sporting facility is put up here so that one day the Black Stars can train and play friendly matches with the Green Eagles of Nigeria here”, he said at the sod cutting ceremony for the Axim project.

In light of the comments from the Minister, it was expected that works on these facilities were going to be accelerated to enable Ghanaians particularly athletes make use of the world class equipment as they prepare for the 2020 Olympic Games.

It was therefore refreshing when Isaac Asiamah announced and assured Ghanaians on several occasions that the projects would be completed in nine months.

"Axim is blessed to have this edifice which will serve the whole Western Region. This edifice will be ready in nine months”, he said.

In the latter part of 2018 and early 2019, Isaac Asiamah embarked on an inspection tour of the projects to assess and have first-hand experience of the progress made by the contractors.

Aside the Azumah Nelson Sports Complex where the Minister expressed dissatisfaction with the progress of work and hinted of a possible extension of the deadline for the completion, Isaac Asiamah generally praised the contractors and scored them high marks.

“The contractor is seriously working, this place faced a peculiar site conditions, where there was an existing facility, which needed to be demolished to pave way for this new one, which obviously affected the completion time. If there is the need for an extension of time to have quality work done, we would not rush him, the contractor would put in the application and justify why more time should be given and how much time needed and through the consultant’s advice, a decision would be taken, which would be based on getting quality work rather than rush the process” he said.

The last sod cutting ceremony which was the Yendi Youth Resource Centre occurred on Tuesday, May 15 2018 and based on the deadline provided by the Minister, the facility should have been ready for use by February 2019.

However nine months from the deadline, not a single one of the Youth Resource Centres has been declared ready for use by Isaac Asiamah’s sports ministry.

The facilities which cost $1.8m each have, 5,000 sitting capacity, FIFA pitches, eight-lane athletics tracks, basketball, volleyball, tennis Courts, ICT Centre, Entrepreneurship/ Counseling Centres, washrooms, and a modern restaurant.