Keynote address 4th Accra Sports Expo – 1st March 2012

Mr Chairman, Dr. Owusu Ansah of University Of Ghana Sports Directorate, Mr. Magnus Rex Danquah, MD – Rics Consult Limited distinguished ladies and gentlemen, members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm, all protocols observed, I feel very honoured to be called upon to deliver the keynote address at this auspicious forum, the 4^TH ACCRA SPORTS EXPO 2012. As the grand gathering of sports luminaries, from sportsmen & women, administrators and sports business executives and industry players all putting their minds to work with the view to exploiting the full potential of sports.

The evolution of this forum from the 1^ST ACCRA BIENNIAL FOOTBALL EXPO through the second and third edition in 2010 which included the 1^ST EVENTS EXPO GHANA reflects the broadening scope of this great creation of RICS Consult headed by Mr Magnus Rex Danquah, a man at the forefront of revolutionising sports development and promotion in Africa and a Mentor of mine.

Mr Chairman, I am particularly thrilled about the theme for this year’s Expo – PROMOTING AFRICA’S TALENTS GLOBALLY: ROLE OF SPORTS BUSINESS – and the fact that it takes the form of an exhibition, workshops and sports clinics for selected senior high schools which give practical meaning of the theme and also put the emphasis where it ought to be the Youth, the Now & the Future.

My excitement with being part of this EXPO is that it is not just a talk shop but one that aims at revolutionising the way we organise and develop sports not only in Ghana but across the continent of Africa. The uniqueness of the EXPO over the years is that it’s been designed and constructed to empower industry players with modern concepts of sports development and promotion anchored on strong business principles and global best practises.

The maiden Accra Football Expo held six years ago was a workshop that redefined the commercial value of football. Barely two years later, Ghana hosted the 2008 MTN Africa Cup of Nations that was perhaps the best organised Nations Cup tournaments of our time with a strong nexus between business and football on all fronts. Because the 1^st Accra Expo redefined the commercial value of Africa’s passion, it clearly defined potential areas of commerce like merchandising, sale of merchandising, corporate suites at stadia, hospitality, among others, which individual Ghanaians and corporate bodies fully exploited.

It came as no surprise that at the end of the tournament CAF declared profits on CAN 2008 for the first time in the history of the Nations Cup and the Bank of Ghana’s economic impact assessment of the tournament indicated it greatly boosted the economy.

Significantly, the 2^nd EXPO, which looked at the Nations Cup as a vehicle for socio-economic development, was held on the shadows of CAN 2008 and saw the Confederation of African Football (CAF) endorsing it as an appropriate vehicle for development of the sport into the future.

Mr Chairman, Invited Guests, Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is just the launch of the 4^th SPORTS EXPO but after this short ceremony, participants will brainstorm on important topics including Developing, Planning and Managing Sustainable Continental Legacies, Financial and Insurance Services for Sports industries, Brands Development and Sports Sponsorship in Africa, Viable Sports Infrastructure, Sports Law and how to grow lesser-known sports.

Sports is a Multi Trillion Dollar industry with an estimated, Plunket Research estimating the US market at over $ 422 Billion for 2011 alone. However, for all the great sportsmen and sportswomen Africa has gifted the world, the continent remains a small player as far as harnessing the economic potential of sports. In dollar terms the size of African football revenue put together pales in comparison to the revenue of Spanish club Real Madrid alone. It means there something we are not getting (and doing) right, hence our paltry share of billions of money global sports generate.

We must pause to ask ourselves why a player like Michael Essien, a young man from Awutu Breku in the Central Region earns in a week more than the British Prime Minister David Cameron earns in a month, or why Camerounian Samuel Eto’o earns in a month at his little known Russian club more than US President Barack Obama earns in a year. That shows the potential of African talents, but all these must be harnessed into strategically for the continent to become a big player in world sports.

The topics being addressed by experts at this year’s EXPO couldn’t have come at a crucial time, coming just two years after Africa hosted its first FIFA World Cup and just months to the summer Olympic Games in London.

South Africa’s ability to rise to the high standards of the FIFA World Cup means that Africa has what it takes to host the multi-sport Olympic Games and even the Commonwealth Games that have so far eluded the continent.

As noted by M. Graham Hollins, a legendary British sports business consultant during a three-day sports sponsorship organised in Ghana by RICS Consult and the Ethel-Jayne Sports business School, Africa needs trained professionals in various areas of sports business to change the face of sports in the country and also tap into the huge recourses and opportunities available for exploitation.

Thus after this EXPO, it is my expectation that participants would have been so empowered to begin to revolutionise the development of Sports in Africa.

Thank you for your attention.

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