Effortlessly, we are gradually moving forward in developing good management practices in African sport. This confidence makes us real victors.
The 54 Secretaries General of African NOCs were in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 12 and 13 November 2022, for their traditional Seminar. The seminar sought to build enhanced management capacities. It is an ongoing endeavour, which is sequel to previous sessions.
This 39th session was peculiar in that it was an ideal launching pad for our common efforts geared towards the successful implementation of various strategic plans.
We held meaningful deliberations. We now agree that athletes are our priority and that NOCs are the testing ground for our overall strategic plan for 2021-2024.
As such, we urge each NOC to make its strategic plan effective and work hard to improve the performance of our athletes to enable us win more medals for the continent.
This, primarily, is the responsibility of our NOC Secretaries General. It is incumbent on them to implement this strategy through the respective strategic plans of each African NOC.
We have very high level competitions in the offing, such as the Olympic Games Paris 2024, the 2nd African Beach Games (23 June to 1 July 2023 in Hammamet, Tunisia), the 4th African Youth Games in Brazzaville, Congo, the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026, in Senegal.
Proper preparation of our athletes will positively impact Africa’s performance at each of these major global events of the Olympic and sports movement.
In Freetown, we were delighted to work together and think about the future. We were delighted to hear that all 54 NOCs are resolutely committed to boosting not only the performance of their athletes, but also the quality of their management by implementing Strategic Plans. Such was the thrust of our deliberations.
I would like to thank all ANOCA Executive Committee members, the NOC Presidents and Olympic Solidarity. They all worked in synergy to make this 39th Seminar a memorable success.
I urge the 54 Secretaries General to remain as professional as ever.
We were more than satisfied with the ceremony to lay the foundation stone of the future new headquarters of NOC Sierra Leone. This thus sets the pace for all NOCs to embrace modernisation.
The initiative is part of the African NOCs headquarters construction project. These new headquarters will be built in accordance with innovative architectural standards, based on proposals from each NOC and approved by ANOCA.
It was one of the highlights of our stay in Freetown. The construction of NOC headquarters is an integral part of our strategy.
2023 will be a hectic year for our NOCs. Quality sports governance must be our guiding principle. It will help fuel our ambition to offer African youth the best through sport and Olympism.
This, of course, is an ongoing quest, but we have made it ours, following the end of our deliberations in Freetown.
