ANOCA President Mustapha Berraf joined FINA President Husain Al-Musallam at Egypt’s National Olympic Committee headquarters in Cairo to formalise relations in the hope that permanent cooperation can be established in the swimming discipline.

The MoU aims to make aquatics more accessible in Africa and to improve the continent’s performances in every discipline.

The agreement also targets the promotion of greater understanding and interests through elements like exchanges and training.

Under the FINA Scholarship Programme, the two organisations plan to set up an initiative to support athletes who aspire to participate in the FINA World Championships and Olympic Games.

Training camps for aquatic athletes have been proposed to aid performance during Olympic Games and World Championships qualifiers as well as support FINA development centres in the Senegalese capital of Dakar and South African town of Franschhoek.

ANOCA and FINA aim to improve the number of coaching certifications and coaching development opportunities.

This is set to be in line with promoting FINA’s "Swimming for All - Swimming for Life Programme" programme which has a goal of teaching children how to swim and spread the benefits of physical activity through swimming.

Likewise, the two organisations intend to promote the "Pools for All" scheme.

This initiative targets African nations that do not have Olympic-size swimming pools.