By Paul Osborne

The Gambia National Olympic Committee has recieved a D4.8 million grant from the Japanese Government ©GNOCMarch 21 - An agreement has been signed between the Gambia National Olympic Committee (GNOC) and Japan in an effort to help improve sports for youth development in the country. 

The agreement, signed during a ceremony at the Gambia Olympic House in Mile Seven, Bakau, means GNOC receive 4.8 million dalais (D) (£80,000/$130,000/€90,000) from the Japanese Government to be put towards the purchase of "standard sports equipment" for the development of four key sports in The Gambia - basketball, athletics, handball and volleyball.

The grant was signed on behalf of the Japanese Government by Shigeru Kondo, Consular at its Senegal Embassy in Dakar and Alhaji Momodou Dibba, President of GNOC, on behalf of the beneficiary sports associations.

The agreement is the second to be approved under The Gambia's new scheme of cultural grassroots projects, after the initial signing of a youth development project in the Kanifing Municipal area worth D2.2 million (£30,000/$60,000/€40,000), and was "initiated and crystallised" by The Gambia's International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Beatrice Allen.

Speaking after the ceremony, Dibba noted the agreement came after extensive talks with Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) President Tsunekazu Takeda, who agreed to help with the development of sports in The Gambia.

He also thanked Allen for her work in securing the projects before stating the importance of choosing to spend the money on the four sports that the country has the best chance of competing at during the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

According to Kondo, the money is set to be spent in three main facilities in Banjul, including the Independence Stadium, Marina International School and Serekunda East Mini-Stadium.

He claimed the grant money would be used to help improve the sports facilities for youth development in The Gambia and will provide 115 different pieces of equipment for each of the four key sports.

The new grant agreement falls in line with Japan's recently launched global initiative, "Sports for Tomorrow".

This project is aimed at promoting Olympic movements worldwide by working closely with the IOC and sports leaders from across the world in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The projects is hoped to help around a million athletes from 100 countries by 2020.

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