The government has decided to complete the University of Ghana (UG) Stadium in Accra to complement the facilities that will be built at Borteyman for the 2023 African Games.
Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, announced to Parliament that due to delays in starting the construction of a proposed 50,000 Olympic size Stadium at Borteyman for the Games as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, it had become apparent that the full stadium may not be completed on time, hence the decision by the government to resort to its plan B.
He said the government would now focus on completing the University of Ghana stadium at Legon, and also building the Olympic stadium at Borteyman in phases by prioritising the urgent construction of facilities that the University of Ghana stadium doesn’t have.
“After careful study of timelines, the Ministry in consultation with the Local Organising Committee has decided to adopt a hybrid approach to construct the project in phases by leveraging on existing facilities at the University of Ghana and build the other facilities that are not available but are requirements for the hosting of the Games,” Mr Ussif said in Parliament.
According to the Minister, the refurbishment of the University of Ghana Stadium would include the resurfacing of existing athletics tracks and the construction of new athletics warm-up running tracks.
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At Borteyman, the following facilities would be constructed for the games: one thousand (1,000) seater competition swimming pool, i.e. eight-lane competition swimming pool, eight-lane warm-up swimming pool, 500-seater temporary dome (handball, judo, karate, taekwondo, wrestling, basketball, etc), and 1,000-seater multi-purpose hall (badminton, boxing, volleyball weightlifting, parasports).
Other facilities to be constructed are 1,000-seater multi-purpose hall (basketball, table tennis, wrestling), five tennis courts complexes, including one thousand (1,000) seater centre court (covered spectator stand) with 20 capacity VVIP viewing seats).
The other four courts would each have 200 spectator seats.
The Minister assured the Parliament of Ghana’s commitment and ability to stage a successful competition.
Ghana won the bid to host the African Games ahead of Egypt and Burkina Faso.
