Story: Sports Desk
The Local Organising Committee of the 2023 African Games has announced that the 13th edition of the event, will come off between March 8-23, 2024.
This comes after a decision was taken to postpone the games which were originally slated to take place from August 4-19 2023.
The new date for the games was revealed during a press conference held on Tuesday night, following the conclusion of a two-day inspection by the Africa Union Sports Council.
Ghana’s efforts to host the games had been hampered due to an impasse over marketing rights involving the involving the African Union (AU), Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and the Association of African Sports Confederations (AASC) who are the competition’s major stakeholders.
The impasse was resolved on the 19th of February in Addis Abba, Ethiopia and was facilitated by the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo.
Coordinator of the African Union Sports Council Dr. Decius Chipande acknowledged Ghana’s commitment to ensuring a successful event.
“I would like to thank The Local Organising Committee led by Dr. Ofosu Asare and his entire team, the Ministry of Youth and Sports led by Honourable minister Mustapha Ussif and the President of the republic for the great Hospitality that we’ve been accorded here in Ghana and the great investment that Ghana have put into hosting a successful 2023 African games.”
According to the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the 2023 African Games, Dr. Kwaku Ofosu-Asare, the athletes and officials participating in the games, will begin arriving in Ghana from March 5-7, 2024.
“The athletes and officials will be arriving from the 5th to 7th March, 2024. He said.
“The interesting thing is that, Ghana will be celebrating her independence on the 6th of March and we want to give them the opportunity to have a feel of how we celebrate it.” Dr.Kwaku Ofosu-Asare said.
The 2023 African Games will also serve as qualifiers for the 2024 Olympics for about 12 of the 25 proposed Sporting Disciplines.