Sponsored by the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) project, the training aimed at using sports as a tool for uniting youth groups and creating an enabling environment to harness development.

It also focused on using soccer as a platform to teach essential life skills, enhance community engagement by fostering social cohesion and community involvement through local soccer programs, and improve gender equality by creating an inclusive environment that promotes equal participation and opportunities for all.

The training was organised in collaboration with the project implementation committee of the SOCO project.

About 140 youth leaders, drawn from the municipality were taken through various topics, including the Introduction to Soccer for Development Project, the role of youth in promoting inclusion and interaction activities using soccer for development tools, among others.

Madam Clare Maar, the Bolgatanga Municipal Director of the NYA, addressing the media on the sidelines of the workshop, noted that the role of the youth in peacebuilding was crucial, and given that sports was an avenue that could unite them, it was important to use football as a tool to harness development.

“The sports sector has also been neglected for a while, so we also want to give them a wakeup call that sports can also bring development into the region, which they must embrace, but not only that because it will even enhance their physical fitness and prevent certain diseases,” she added.

She said as the country was heading into the general elections on December 7, 2024, it was important that the peace of the country was maintained and called on the youth to avoid involving themselves in activities that would mar the peace of the country.

Mr. Francis Takyi Koranteng, the Upper Regional Director of the NYA, called on parents to allow their children, irrespective of their gender to pursue football and other sporting activities as their career if they so desired, adding that, unlike before, when it was perceived as a bad venture and not an avenue for the female, sports was lucrative, brings about development and meant for all.

Mrs Fauzia Ayinpogbila Issifu, the Programmes Manager of the Upper East Regional Peace Council, indicated that the youth had a role to play in harnessing the peace of the country for sustainable development and called on them to be agents of positive change and help maintain the peace of the country.

Mr. Ibrahim Alhassan Jihad, the Regional Director of the National Sports Authority and co-facilitator of the workshop, urged the youth leaders to implement the knowledge gained in their various communities to improve sports development in the region.