GOC President Ben Nunoo Mensah touts benefits of IOC visit

The President of the Ghana Olympic Committee, Ben Nunoo Mensah, has told Ghanaweb.com that he is confident that his recent visit to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), will prove to be a worthwhile and fruitful venture in the coming weeks and months.

Mr Ben Nunoo Mensah with a few executives of the GOC emplaned to the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland last week.

Speaking to Ghanaweb.com upon his arrival, the GOC President said the visit went very well, adding that the keen interest shown by the IOC President Thomas Bach was indicative of the strides that the GOC has made over the last few years.

“The meeting was very successful and productive. The IOC President met us for more than an hour and it is unprecedented because he is a very busy man. Even when his aides were beckoning him to attend other meetings he ignored it and stayed with us, listening to us. His entourage was surprised because he (Bach) usually meets other national presidents for 30 minutes or less.”

The GOC President also mentioned that he and his executives went to the IOC with the view of exploring opportunities in 4 main areas.

They are; Olympic Solidarity, communication and IT upgrade, constitutional improvements and lastly seeking the help of the IOC in the completion of the Amasaman Youth Excellence Centre Project.

Olympic Solidarity

The Olympic Solidarity is the major source of funding from the IOC to member Association. This funding goes into athlete welfare, training opportunities for athletes and officials among many others.

During the recent visit, Mr Ben Nunoo Mensah said positive progress has been made to ensure Ghana gets more funding to help develop athletes in the near future.


Improving GOC IT and Communication Department

One of Mr Ben Nunoo Mensah’s wish is to leave a legacy by the time he leaves office as GOC President. He believes having a functioning IT and communications department is key to information dissemination and thus is seeking the help of the IOC to upgrade the current website of the GOC and also help him set up a very efficient and reliable communications department.

Amending GOC constitution

According to the President of the GOC, there are a few gray areas in the Ghana Olympic Committee constitution which will need amendments. He, therefore, used the visit to seek permission on who to proceeded to amend to meet the ICO standard.

Olympic Complex at Amasaman
The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Dr Thomas Bach, has reiterated his strong support for the continuing development of sports in Ghana.

To that end, he has given an assurance of his support to the completion of the ANOCA Sports Complex at Amasaman which he said would be a future youth centre of excellence.

The project which has still had to be finalized could potentially be supported by the International Olympic Committee, the government of Ghana and other partners.