briefsports.net
Olympic movement · Africa

ANOCA — Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa

The continental association of the 54 African National Olympic Committees, founded in Lome on 28 June 1981 and headquartered in Abuja; it runs the African Youth, Beach and School Games and sits on the committee that manages the African Games.
✓ Last reviewed: September 2026
Founded28 June 1981, Lome
Members54 African National Olympic Committees
HeadquartersPlot 55, Cadastral Zone B15, Sector Centre A, Jahi, Abuja, Nigeria
Games it runsAfrican Youth Games; African Beach Games; African School Games
Upcoming3rd African Beach Games, Riaba, Equatorial Guinea, 2027; African School Games, Nigeria, 2027
PresidentMustapha Berraf (Algeria), re-elected unopposed 15 March 2025, Algiers
African GamesManaged by an African Union Sports Council technical committee on which ANOCA sits

What is ANOCA?

ANOCA, in French ACNOA, is the continental association of the National Olympic Committees of Africa. Its own about page states that it groups "fifty-four African National Olympic Committees" and that the body was originally described as "the Pan-African Olympic Institution at the service of sport, youth, human development and the promotion of Olympic values".[1] That phrasing is the organisation's own.

It is one of the five continental associations of National Olympic Committees named in the ANOC Constitution, alongside the EOC, the OCA, ONOC and Panam Sports.[7]

Its position over the continent's flagship event differs from that of its counterparts. The African Games are managed through an African Union structure on which ANOCA is represented rather than being ANOCA's exclusive property, which is the arrangement in the Americas, Asia and Europe. The Games ANOCA runs in its own name are the youth, beach and school editions.[4] [2]

What does ANOCA govern or do?

ANOCA's General Assembly elects its leadership and sets its programme; its Extraordinary General Assemblies have taken decisions on the African School Games and the African Youth Games in recent years.[2] Its published priorities for the 2025-2028 cycle are infrastructure partnerships with international federations, athlete scholarships and Olympic preparation funding, women's leadership, and governance transparency.[3]

Much of its visible activity is delivery to member NOCs: an Olympic Solidarity forum in Nairobi preparing African NOCs for LA2028, support for the commissioning of new NOC headquarters in South Sudan, and a hosting agreement signed with Nigeria in July 2026 for the 2027 African School Games.[2]

This page could not retrieve ANOCA's own statutes. The organisation's site was reachable but did not serve a statutes document, so the description of its powers rests on its own reporting of its assemblies and on the African Union Sports Council's published institutional structure, not on ANOCA's governing instrument.[2] [4]

When was ANOCA founded and where is it based?

ANOCA states that it was founded on 28 June 1981 in Lome.[1] That places it in the same wave as ONOC, formed at Baden-Baden in the same year, when the IOC encouraged the formation of continental zones. This page could not establish a separate IOC recognition date for ANOCA and does not assert one; no rename is recorded, though the body is referred to by its French acronym ACNOA as well as ANOCA.[1] [2]

The headquarters is in Abuja, Nigeria, at Plot 55, Cadastral Zone B15, Sector Centre A, Jahi.[1] [2]

Mustapha Berraf of Algeria, an IOC member, has been president since 2018. He was re-elected at the General Assembly in Cairo on 25 May 2021 and again, running unopposed, at the General Assembly in Algiers on 15 March 2025, for a 2025-2028 term.[5] [3] The organisation's stated domain africaolympic.com resolves intermittently and was reachable only through a proxy fetch; it is cited here as the official site on that basis.

How is ANOCA recognised?

The Olympic Charter carries it. Rule 3.2 provides that the IOC "may also recognise associations of NOCs formed at continental or world level", that such associations "shall have, where possible, the status of legal persons", that "they must comply with the Olympic Charter", and that "their statutes are subject to the approval of the IOC"; the Charter's table of abbreviations lists ANOCA as "Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa".[6]

Rule 3.4 preserves the direct line between each NOC and the IOC notwithstanding that recognition, and Rule 27.7.6 gives each NOC the right to "belong to associations of NOCs recognised by the IOC".[6] Withdrawal of full recognition from an association of NOCs is reserved to the IOC Session.[6]

The ANOC Constitution names ANOCA as one of the five Continental Associations within the worldwide association of NOCs.[7] ANOCA's statutes themselves could not be retrieved, so the IOC approval those statutes require under Rule 3.2 is not evidenced here from the document itself.

What does ANOCA organise?

ANOCA's own homepage lists four competition categories: the African Games, the African Youth Games, the African Beach Games and the African School Games.[2] The last three are its own; the first is not solely its own.

The African Union Sports Council states that a Technical Committee for the African Games, "composed of representatives from the AU Sports Council, African Union Commission, representatives from ANOCA and AASC", oversees "the overall organisation and management of the Games in collaboration with the Local Organising Committee".[4] That document does not say who owns the Games, and this page does not assert an owner; it reports the management structure as published. Relations between ANOCA and the African Union over the Games have been publicly contested in the past.

Forthcoming events in ANOCA's own name include the third African Beach Games in Riaba, Equatorial Guinea in 2027 and the African School Games in Nigeria in 2027.[2] Its members enter the Olympic Games and the Youth Olympic Games through their own NOCs.[6]

Who are its members?

Fifty-four National Olympic Committees are members, a figure ANOCA repeats across its own pages and which matches the number of African states with IOC-recognised committees.[1] [5] Cape Verde is among them.

Membership follows IOC recognition: Rule 27.7.6 of the Olympic Charter gives the NOC the right to belong to a recognised association, and Rule 3.2 makes compliance with the Charter a condition of the association's own standing, so ANOCA cannot admit a committee the IOC has not recognised.[6]

Members vote at the General Assembly, which elects the president and executive; the 2025 assembly in Algiers returned Berraf unopposed and adopted the 2025-2028 programme.[3] ANOCA also maintains a relationship with the African Union, with a delegation meeting the AU in Addis Ababa in August 2026, which is the channel through which government-side sport policy in Africa reaches the Olympic structure.[2] [4]

References

  1. ANOCA — About ANOCA. Accessed September 2026.
  2. ANOCA — official site home (English). Accessed September 2026.
  3. ANOC — ANOCA's strategic vision for 2025-2028: Mustapha Berraf's re-election, Algiers, 15 March 2025. Accessed September 2026.
  4. African Union Sports Council — Institutional Structure. Accessed September 2026.
  5. ANOCA — press releases (Africa Newsroom). Accessed September 2026.
  6. International Olympic Committee — Olympic Charter, in force as from 3 February 2026 (PDF). Accessed September 2026.
  7. ANOC — Constitution of the Association of National Olympic Committees (PDF). Accessed September 2026.