Ghanaian sports administrator, Herbert Mensah has been elected the new president of Rugby Africa, Kyfilla.com can exclusively confirm.
The renowned businessman has been handed the continental position after an overwhelming votes at the Rugby Africa’s annual general meeting in Cape Town – South Africa on Saturday, March 18, 2023.
Herbert Mensah who is currently the President of Ghana Rugby Football Union has taken over the mantle from Khaled Babbou and will lead Rugby Africa for the next four years.
The former Asante Kotoko executive chairman’s progressive development of the rugby game in Ghana and in compliance with world rugby standards over the past years gained greater recognition in 2019 when he was appointed a member of the Africa Rugby Executive committee.
In March 2019, Herbert Mensah put forward his personal bid to take over as President of Africa Rugby at a Marrakech summit, but later announced his withdrawal from the race shortly before the declaration of President Khaled Babbou and Mensah’s subsequent appointment unto the governing board of Africa Rugby.
During the Africa Rugby Summit in Morocco, Ghana Rugby Football union(GRFU), of which Herbert Mensah is the President, also received an outstanding award from the continental rugby body for ”Best Communication strategy” as part of the 2019 rugby Africa awards night held in Marrakech-Morocco.
Rugby Africa recognised Ghana Rugby and Herbert Mensah for employing social media and the mass media in general to develop, advance and make the professional game of rugby popular in Ghana and Africa at large.
On May 10, 2019, the World Rugby Council approved the application by the Ghana Rugby Football Union as a full member union, bringing the total number to 104 full members and 17 associates.[ads2]
In announcing the achievement World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont said: “We are delighted to be welcoming Ghana as a full member of World Rugby. These are very exciting times for our sport with unprecedented growth and interest around the world. With today’s announcement, we look forward to a strong, well-organised game in Ghana and we are glad that the union is now ready to join the global rugby family as a full member and continue its work growing the game in Africa.”
In 2019, World Rugby, the global governing body of rugby football unions announced a global campaign to revolutionize women’s participation in the game of rugby world-wide.
The campaign Dubbed ”Try And Stop Us” is aimed globally at encouraging and increasing participation among fans, players and investors in the women’s game of rugby.[ads4]
In Ghana, Herbert Mensah, President of Ghana Rugby and the union has for the past two years, in compliance with a World Rugby youth development program ”Get Into Rugby” focused on recruiting, training, coaching and inspiring the next generation of young women rugby players in Ghana through basic schools.
Ghana Rugby in the past seasons organized women’s sevens tournaments alongside men’s fifteens. It is the aim of women in Ghana Rugby to compete in international tournaments in the near future.
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