Bach also took part in a meeting of the Angolan Olympic Committee (COA) Executive Committee and attended the signing of an agreement between the IOC and the Sports Ministry.

At the meeting, he congratulated COA President Gustavo Dias Vaz da Conceicão and his colleagues for their work over the past few years in preparing athletes for the Olympic Games and implementing sports development projects in the country.

They discussed support for the COA, which is working to upgrade and transform its Olympafrica Centre in the town of Viana.

The Centre is one of 44 throughout Africa.

Following independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola first competed at an Olympic Games five years later in Moscow.

The country missed the Los Angeles 1984 Games, but has competed in all eight Summer editions since.

It has yet to win a medal.

Bach’s trip to Angola followed a visit to the Olympafrica Centre in Boané in Mozambique.

The Centre provides sports and recreational facilities as well as training for more than 2,000 local children and basic healthcare.

It also offers employment opportunities, with a local business producing and selling school uniforms.

Having visited the maternity and health centre, Bach was then able to see the children in class and played football with a group of them.

The German was accompanied throughout the visit, among others, by South African IOC member Sam Ramsamy and Mozambique National Olympic Committee (CONM) President Marcelino Macome.

It came after he had addressed the 17th Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) General Assembly in Djibouti.

During his speech, Bach highlighted the record 45-medal haul by African countries at the Rio 2016 Olympics and wished the continent's athletes even more success at Tokyo 2020.

He praised new ANOCA initiatives aimed at strengthening governance and regulation, emphasising that the autonomy of sport and good governance were "two sides of the same coin".