A two-day congress of the Confederation of African Cycling (CAC) ended in Nairobi on Tuesday with visiting World Cycling Union (UCI) President David Lappartient rubbing his hands with glee at the prospects that await the sport in Africa.
The climax of the well-attended congress at The Stanley Hotel in Nairobi was the signing of an eight-year partnership between Belgium-based global sports management company Golazo and CAC that will see Golazo help rejuvenate the sport’s marketing on the continent.
Frenchman Lappartient, who was in Nairobi to oversee the African congress, said he was impressed by the prospects that the deal— signed between Golazo Group CEO Bob Verbeeck and CAC President Mohamed Wahih Azzam — held for African cycling.
CAC brings together 54 national federations, with the contract between the African body and Golazo running from 2024 to 2032.
Attractive packaging
Golazo, whose head office is in Brussels with some of its global branches being in Kigali and Nairobi, has undertaken to assist African national federations organise international championships besides putting in place an attractive packaging of the continent as a global cycling force.
“We at UCI believe that strong continental championships will mean a stronger UCI. The hosting of international championships in Africa has been a challenge, because of political issues, among others, but you, as Africa, have the best athletes and these should be at the start line of these continental championships,” said Lappartient, seen in some quarters as possibly the next President of the International Olympic Committee after incumbent Thomas Bach’s term runs out next year.
“I have had a discussion with CAC President Dr Azzam on the future of the sport in Africa. We would like to see one million people lining up the streets to watch cycling, and the sport needs to be promoted and be televised live in all African nations,” Lappartient added.
“We know Golazo’s expertise and we know that their priority is in Africa, so it’s good to use this expertise to benefit Africa,” the Frenchman noted.
In his presentation to the delegates, Veerbeck said Golazo would also focus on popularizing mass participation cycling and also helping national federations in Africa package proper bids to host international championships.
Speedy development
CAC’s Egyptian President Azzam said the partnership between Golazo and his confederation will ensure the dream of a speedy development of cycling in Africa will finally be a reality.
The congress was also attended by Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba, who said his dream was to see Kenya develop its sporting talent through the ‘Talanta Hela’ initiative that seeks to monetise talent, including in cycling.
“We want to make sure our pool of talent is exploited. Talanta Hela is a special purpose vehicle to move sports from being merely recreational to assuring sportspeople of a livelihood, and to also brand our country as a good destination for sports tourism,” Namwamba said.
Addressing the delegates, John Chumo, CEO at ‘Mama Doing Good,’ an initiative of First Lady Rachel Ruto, said the organisation is pushing to change policy to allow for a more prominent role to be played by cycling in environmental conservation and reduction of pollution.
The two-day CAC Congress concluded with the adoption of financial reports for 2021 and 2022 that indicate the confederation had cash reserves of 98,371.23 Euros at the end of last year, up from 55,847.82 the previous year.
Delegates also approved the confederation’s 2023 budget.
A total of 35 nations from CAC’s 54-strong membership sent officials to the congress, namely Egypt, Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau, South Africa, Senegal, Guinea, Eritrea, Mozambique, Malawi, Mauritius, Ethiopia, hosts Kenya, Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
Others were Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco, Somalia, Ghana, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Burundi, Cape Verde, Comoros and Congo.
The rest were Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Mali, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Tunisia and Uganda. BY DAILY NATION