The 2023 Inter Ministerial Games kicked off yesterday at the Accra Sports Stadium as part of activities to mark this year's Civil Service Week celebration.

Set to end June 3, the event would have 36 teams (both male and female) compete in football and tennis as part of efforts to promote unity, good health and sportsmanship in the civil service.

This year's celebration is under the theme, "Enhanced Civil Service Delivery and Economic Transformation in Ghana; The Civil Service in Focus."

Opening the games, the Head of Civil Service, Nana Kwasi Agyekum Dwamena, said he was pleased with preparations for the Games and was certain it would be a very competitive period.

"The first edition won by the Ministry of Youth and Sports was very exciting, but I believe this year's event would see a massive improvement from last year's," he stated.

He said last year's event was just football but added tennis to this year's competition to include the women.

"We wish to use sports to promote togetherness, and create an enabling environment for the civil service to work together to foster national development," he stressed.

He commended the Ministry of Youth of Sports (MoYS) for accepting to be the lead ministry for the Games, and called on participants to be disciplined and abide by the rules while ensuring fairness and transparency at all times.

TheMoYS Head of Human Resource, Mr. Eric Mensah Bonsu, said he was optimistic that they would retain the trophy.

He urged all the teams to put up a good performance this year in order to improve upon the standards of the Games.

The Head of the Planning Committee, Mr Evans Aggrey Darkoh, urged the Civil Service to use the games as a platform to form collaborations towards national development.

The Ministry of Works and Housing beat Public Sector Reforms 5-0 in the opening match.