Mr. Mustapha Ussif, the Minister of Youth and Sports, has said his outfit will work closely with the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) in his quest to develop sports and the talents of the youth in Ghana.

He made the statement when the GOC paid a courtesy call on the Minister yesterday at the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

The newly appointed Minister said, “we will work closely with the GOC to develop sports and the youth in the country. The greatest resources we have in the country is, gold, cocoa, oil, but the youth of our country are the also resources. It is the youth of this country that have to be resourced. And we have to identify their talents to develop them to become future leaders and it is only through sports.”

He reaffirmed his commitment to give attention to the least financed sports including boxing, weightlifting, badminton, rugby, netball, adding that, his outfit would have a comprehensive four-year development plan for sports and launch Ghana’s sports policy to commence work.

The Minister of Youth and Sports directed the Federation and Association heads to submit their strategic plans, programs and activities with budgets beginning of every year to factor it in his plans for consideration.

He stressed that he wanted excellent preparations for qualified athletes for the Tokyo Olympic Games this year to get the athletes ready for the delayed Games to bring laurels to the nation.

On his part, Mr. Ben Nunoo Mensah, the President of the GOC said the biggest challenge confronting sports in Ghana was bad press and appealed to the media to project the positives to attract corporate sponsorship.

He called on the media to change the bad perception and brand sports saying that, Media is the second benefit when it comes to sports in Ghana. “Let’s change the bad perception because we are killing the brand that feeds us. No corporate entity will associate with negative brands.”

The new Chief Director at the Ministry, Alhaji Hafiz Adams congratulated the GOC executives and believes they would work to achieve excellent results.