The Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs Cynthia Mamle Morrison, has cut the sod for the construction of two astro turfs at Agona Swedru and Nyakrom, both in the Agona West Municipality in the Central Region.

Both projects, which are expected to be completed by the end of October 2020 at Otabilkrom, a suburb of Agona Swedru, and the Victoria Park at Agona Nyakrom, are being funded by the One Million Dollar, One Constituency programme through the Coastal Development Authority (CODA)

Mrs Morrison, accompanied by the Chief Executive Officer of CODA, Mr Jerry Ahmed Shaib, paid courtesy calls on the Chief of Agona Swedru, Ogidigram Okrupi Asiedu Botwe II, and the Omanhene of the Nyakrom Traditional Area, Okofo Katakyi Nyarku Eku X, before undertaking the respective ceremonies.

Nurturing football talents

In an interview with the media, Mrs Morrison noted that the projects, when completed, would help aspiring footballers in the area to nurture their talents.

She explained that the Agona area had a lot of football talents and that it was important that the needed facilities were put in place by the government to enable such footballers to improve their careers to contribute to sports development in the country.

According to her, the government was committed to unearthing many football talents through the construction of astro turfs nationwide, stressing that, “the construction of the astro turfs would obviously provide a state of the art training grounds for footballers to grow their sporting career.

“I wish to urge the youth with passion for sports to take advantage of the facilities, when completed, to build their career in sports to transform their lives,” Mrs Morrison stated.

She explained that the projects would be a conducive training pitch for local teams as they prepared for the next football season, adding that the pitch could also be used to host durbars and inter-school sporting competitions.

Local artisans

Mrs Morrison urged the contractor to employ local artisans so as to provide direct and indirect jobs to the unemployed youth in the area, saying, “this is an opportunity for the youth in the area to get temporary jobs to improve their living standards.

She further advised the youth who would be employed to be regular and desist from acts that had the tendency to slow down the project.

Cost of project

For his part, Mr Shaib revealed that both projects would be executed by MSH Astro Ghana Limited at a cost of GH₵3m and that they would transform sporting activities in the beneficiary communities.

He urged the communities to take keen interest in monitoring the projects to ensure they were executed according to the agreed plan.
He further admonished the contractor to ensure that both projects were completed ahead of schedule.

Ogidigram Asiedu Botwe II and Okofo Nyarku Eku X commended the government for the projects and urged the contractor to ensure the speedy completion of both projects for the benefit of the people.