The Ghana Cycling Federation (GCF), in partnership with the African Cycling Network Satellite, has donated four Sports Racing bicycles to the Ghana Prisons Service in a move aimed at building competitive cycling teams within the country’s security services.
The presentation, led by GCF Secretary General Shaaban Mohammed, marks the first step in a broader campaign to establish structured cycling programmes for the Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana Police Service and Ghana Armed Forces — with the long-term goal of competing at African and world level.
Speaking at the donation, Mohammed said Ghana currently has no dedicated security services cycling team, even though such competitions are a regular fixture across Africa and globally.
“Security services games are organised annually on the continent,” he explained. “But Ghana has so far only sent officials to observe rather than compete. Ghana is involved in all aspects of sports, and cycling is not supposed to be excluded.”
He described the bike donation as “the start of a deliberate push” to formally bring the security services into organised cycling.
According to Mohammed, the idea was born after federation officials encountered a group of Prisons officers cycling alongside professionals during a Parkinson’s disease awareness event in Legon.
Several of the officers, he said, were already riding 40 to 50 miles on their own initiative — a sign there was untapped talent worth developing.
Beyond competition, Mohammed said a structured pathway could also serve as a recruitment tool.
“If the youth are not being taken care of, we don’t have a future country,” he added.
Receiving the bikes, Deputy Director of Prisons Fiifi Dontoh, who oversees procurement, welcomed the gesture. He noted that the service is already active in football, boxing and athletics, while cycling had previously been informal among interested officers.
“This donation will allow the service to formalize training and build a team capable of competing both internally and, eventually, in national colors,” Dontoh said.
He thanked both the GCF and African Cycling Network Satellite, calling the donation “an invitation into the cycling fraternity that the service intends to honour by developing genuine competitive talent among its officers.”
Mohammed confirmed the Ghana Police Service and Ghana Armed Forces are also in the process of forming cycling teams, with the Prisons Service being the first to receive racing bikes.
The federation hopes the initiative will encourage other agencies including the Ghana Immigration Service and Ghana National Fire Service to launch their own programmes and raise the overall profile of cycling in Ghana.
