The President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), Kurt Okraku, has praised Gianni Infantino’s support for African football after meeting the FIFA President in Paris, France.

In turn, Gianni Infantino said that the GFA was working hard to further develop football in the West African nation, increase participation – especially among women - and make the most of FIFA's support.

“I congratulated him on the Ghana Football Association making excellent use of the FIFA Forward programme, such as the recent upgrade to the Ghana Soccer Centre of Excellence,” Mr Infantino said following the meeting at the FIFA office.

“President Okraku also explained how Ghana was benefitting from the FIFA Talent Development Scheme, giving anyone who wants to play football in Ghana a chance to shine. He also provided me with an update on the work being done to encourage greater female participation in our sport.”

“Ghana certainly is a football nation, as I saw for myself during a visit a few years ago, and the GFA is working incredibly hard to ensure more young people in the country can play our wonderful sport. I look forward to continuing our excellent collaboration and to seeing Ghana participate in FIFA tournaments in the future.”

Ghana is one of the countries to have joined the FIFA Talent Development Scheme (TDS) and hosted a TDS workshop in June 2024 for ten African member associations.

The improvements at the Ghana Soccer Centre of Excellence – the GFA’s national team training centre in Prampram – include new floodlights, which were switched on in April 2024, while work on a 40-bed accommodation facility to house national teams is well advanced. The installation of an additional artificial playing surface is also close to completion.

“FIFA, led by the President, has been at the forefront of support for the development of football, especially in Africa. It was always important for us to engage and to know how far we are going, how well we are doing, and what we have to do to make it much, much, much better,” Mr Okraku said.

“I think that the President is very clear in what needs to be done. As the President of a federation, I’m also very clear on the vision of FIFA and together we are both sharing the same vision,” he added.

Mr Okraku said that Ghanaian football was on the rise again. “We’ve introduced more youth competitions, more youth national teams… All our domestic competitions are back on track and are timely. So I think the outlook looks very good,” he said.

“What we have to do now, going forward, is to harness the potential and the positives that have come out of what we have done, and to make sure that we continue to improve on the work we are doing. But, at the moment, I would say we are on the rise again.”