The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) defeated the National Youth Authority (NYA) 4-2 on penalties to win an inter-agency football gala held at the Accra Sports Stadium.
The competition, organised by the NYA on Friday, formed part of this year’s National Youth Month celebrations and brought together staff and representatives from a number of public agencies.
The final was keenly contested before YEA prevailed in the shootout to claim the title.
The football tournament was one of several activities designed to encourage team bonding, participation and healthy competition among workers from the participating organisations.
Alongside the football matches, attendees took part in a range of recreational and traditional games. These included a sack race, table tennis, oware, cards, ludo, another sack race, scrabble, and lime and spoon.
Speaking about the event, NYA Deputy CEO Inusah Mahama said the inter-agency competition was part of a wider programme being held to mark National Youth Month.
“We’re organizing this competition as part of National Youth Month. It is one of the responsibilities of the National Youth Authority to organize National Youth Month, and we have a lot of activities lined up,” he said.
Mr Mahama said the celebrations had already included the National Youth Celebration at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi, with further events planned over the coming days.
“We had the National Youth Celebration at KNUST in Kumasi. Now, we’ve organized the inter-agency games. On Tuesday, we’ll be organizing the Youth Parliament, and on Thursday, we’ll have the Intergenerational Dialogue. We’ll then climax the celebrations at Independence Square with the National Youth Celebration.”
The National Youth Month programme will therefore continue with the Youth Parliament on Tuesday, followed by the Intergenerational Dialogue on Thursday.
The celebrations will conclude at Independence Square with the National Youth Celebration.
The inter-agency gala is part of the NYA’s continuing work to promote youth engagement, unity and active living. It provided staff and representatives from the agencies with an opportunity to interact outside their usual working environment while competing in both football and other sporting and social activities.
YEA’s success in the headline football competition ensured the agency left the Accra Sports Stadium as champions, after a final settled by a 4-2 penalty victory over the host organisation, NYA.
