Ekow Assafuah reveals details of alleged visa scandal at NSA

The Ranking Member on Parliament's Youth and Sports Committee, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, has alleged that the Director-General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Yaw Ampofo-Ankrah, is involved in a US$623,000 visa scheme.

The NSA has been accused of receiving approximately US$623,000 from members of the public in exchange for facilitating visas for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

According to Ekow Assafuah, his checks indicate that the NSA collaborated with TRIBE FEST during the World Cup period to facilitate supporters' travel from Ghana to the United States and Canada, although details of the arrangement remain unclear.

Assafuah challenges Sports Minister over NSA visa allegations

"Well, the NSA Director-General is clearly in cahoots with a company called TRIBE FEST, and, as part of their campaign, they decided to ferry supporters from Ghana to the US and Canada. You could clearly see that the company was given some authority to operate and some amount of validation, to the extent that the project office was given an office at the NSA premises.

"That is, the Accra Sports Stadium, where they operated and appeared to be the official people that you could engage if you wanted to travel to Canada and the US. And so the big question is, who gave them that opportunity to operate at the NSA's premises?" he questioned in an interview with Sporty FM on September 18, 2026.

NSA Allegedly Presented Travellers as Staff

Ekow Assafuah further alleged that the NSA presented some of the applicants as its staff to facilitate the visa process.

He said that while Canadian authorities reportedly issued visas after failing to verify the names, US officials contacted Sports Minister Kofi Adams to confirm the individuals' identities.

"Mind you, the United States of America's embassy had written to the Minister for Sports, indicating, if you like, requesting validation of names and details of certain persons who had been introduced by the National Sports Authority as staff of the National Sports Authority.

“And that is how TRIBE FEST was taking people to Canada and the USA. We introduced those people as staff of the NSA, and then the Director-General or any of the officers would write to the embassy, listing the names of those people and introducing them to the embassy for the embassy to give them visas."

He continued, “The Canadian embassy failed to verify the names of such people and issued visas to them, but the US embassy was smart about it and said no; they had to verify these names with the minister himself because the NSA is an agency under the minister.

"Then they confirmed, and the minister said no; he didn't know them because he had also inquired from the NSA Director-General, who denied that these people were staff of the embassy,” he said.

NSA Officials Face Police Probe

Speaking on the police investigations into the matter, Ekow Assafuah disclosed that Ampofo-Ankrah, some NSA staff and other officials are being investigated by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.

He further alleged that one of the officials involved had refunded part of the money received during the process, which was expected to be returned to the petitioners.

“NSA Director-General is involved as we speak. One other staff member is also involved. And the CID is actually engaging them. They've been asked to refund some of the money that they took for one... So we are hoping that there will be some amount of finality to this matter. As we speak, one of the staff who has been arrested by the CID has refunded about 70 percent of the money for it to be given to the petitioners.

“I'm told it's not fully refunded, and for now, he's still running around to find money to refund it so that the bank account can be closed for him,” he alleged.

Assafuah Calls for Ampofo-Ankrah to Step Aside

The Ranking Member on Parliament's Youth and Sports Committee called on Ampofo-Ankrah to step aside from his position while investigations continue.

“But I expect the NSA Director-General to resign as a matter of principle because this is a big issue. Where you've taken monies from ordinary Ghanaians that you're going to take to the World Cup, and you fail to take them, and you're also failing to refund their money to them,” he added.

Meanwhile, the NSA has denied the allegations and vowed to cooperate with the police investigations to bring finality to the matter.

Watch the interview below:



SB/SEA

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