Johnson Omolo re-elected president of the Africa Golf Confederation, will serve through 2030.
Johnson Omolo has been re-elected president of the Africa Golf Confederation (AGC) without opposition, giving the Ugandan administrator a mandate to 2030 and a second shot at the issue that has long held back continental golf governance: funding. The vote took place on Friday 16 October in Hammamet, at the AGC’s elective general assembly held alongside the men’s African championship, with Omolo returned for a second consecutive term. Delegates from 18 countries voted in Hammamet, and Ugandan media report that 31 nations backed his candidacy in total. The R&A also endorsed the result.
“This is not my victory; it is Africa’s victory. We will champion Pan-Africanism through golf,” Omolo said in his acceptance speech. “One Africa, One Golf! We shall embark on operationalisation of our Cooperation agreement with the Arab Golf Federation to achieve our set objectives on technical, financial and development agenda for both regions.”
The wider executive was also settled. According to Egyptian and Tunisian media reports, Egypt’s Mohamed Anwar took an executive committee seat by acclamation, Tunisian Golf Federation president Mohamed Aziz Fetni beat Kenya’s Philip Ochola for the North Africa vice-presidency, Michael Aggrey kept the general secretary post and Christopher Mulenga was returned as Southern Africa vice-president.
Omolo first won the presidency in 2022
He spent nine years as deputy, first to Zambia’s Joe Malanje and later to Mauritius’s Christophe Currie, before unseating Currie in a close vote at El Gouna Golf Club in Egypt. The assembly coincided with a record tournament. Tunisia hosted the men’s African championship for the first time, at Citrus Golf Club in Hammamet, with 17 teams and 68 players. The Arab Golf Federation agreement is the most commercially significant item in Omolo’s second-term agenda. He described it as a newly signed memorandum with a federation headquartered in Riyadh, covering coach and referee exchanges, an intercontinental championship, and junior and women’s golf development. Saudi Arabia has made golf a central part of its sports investment strategy, and a formal link into that network is the most realistic route to the “financial” objectives Omolo named. Terms have not been disclosed, so the scale of any funding is still unknown.
A permanent, staffed secretariat
In 2024 Omolo said the AGC had been registered in Kenya in September 2023, but the office there still had no funding. A permanent, staffed secretariat had been one of his main pledges when he first ran. A continental body running major championships without a funded headquarters will struggle to sell itself to sponsors. The confederation has also shown it will enforce its own revenue base.
Nigeria Golf Federation
In July it suspended the Nigeria Golf Federation over unpaid affiliation fees. The AGC said Nigeria had ignored its letters and offered no plan to clear the arrears. Suspending the continent’s most populous nation is a costly step for a body chasing growth, but it makes clear that membership dues are not optional. Omolo’s longer-running pitch is to governments in Africa. He has repeatedly pressed African governments to put money into courses and facilities so they can compete for golf tourists.
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