Ministry of Youth and Sports holds mid-year performance review

As part of efforts to review the programmes and projects, improve key performance index, as well as proffer solutions to teething challenges, the Ministry of youth and sports embarked on a two-day Mid-Year Performance Review conference in Sogakope in the Volta region.

The conference brought together management of the Ministry headed by its sector Ministers as well as its Agencies namely the National Sports Authority (NSA), National Youth Authority (NYA) and the National Sports College, Winneba.

In opening the conference, the Sector Minister, Hon. Isaac Asiamah expressed gratitude to Directors and Heads of Agencies for their unflinching support and enormous commitment towards the realization of key achievements that have been chalked during the period under review.

The Minister was particularly proud of the collective efforts of personnel of at the Ministry and the Agencies that culminated in ensuring that the Sector achieved a clean bill of fiscal discipline in the 2017 Auditor’s General Report, a feat that has been rare at the Ministry for the past 11 years.

The Minister further urged Directors and Heads of Agencies not to rest on their laurels in pushing the vision of harnessing the potential of the youth and values of sports for national development.

Enumerating some of the achievements chalked in the period of review, the Deputy Director of Policy, Planning, Budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation of the Ministry, Mr. Solomon Tetteh Mensah stated that Progress has been made towards the establishment of the National Sports Fund. He noted that following the setup of a Committee and subsequent stakeholder fora to oversee the establishment of a Sports Fund, a draft bill has finally been prepared and ready to be submitted to Cabinet for consideration and approval.

The Fund, when finally established, would be a huge solution to the many myriad of challenges facing the development, growth and promotion of sports in the country.

Mr Tetteh Mensah also mentioned the Ministry’s vision of providing sports infrastructure across the country that has seen the commencement of construction of 10 multi-purpose Youth and Sports Resource Centres in every Region of the country. He indicated that these facilities are at various stages of completion and are expected to be completed in nine months (after date of commencement) to give a huge boost to our country’s sports infrastructure. Similarly, renovation works at the Accra Sports Stadium is progressing steadily.

Under the period of review the Ministry, by virtue of Cabinet approval started preparatory works for the hosting of the 2023 African Games in Ghana. The Deputy Director revealed that a four-member team has been put together by the Ministry to produced Ghana’s Bid File. An Evaluation Team from the African Union Commission has already visited the country to assess the country’s readiness ahead of the Games. Ghana’s final bid is expected to be presented by Ghana’s Bid Team to the specialized Technical Committee (STC) at its meeting in October this year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In line with H.E the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s commitment to revive school sports in the country, the Ministry has set up a committee to work towards reviving sports in our schools. The project will be executed between the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the National Sports Authority (NSA) with support from the National Youth Authority (NYA).

On enhancing the capacity of the youth in the country, the Ministry of Youth and Sports through the NYA and in conjunction with Ecobank Ghana Limited trained 3000 youth to acquire skills in online/Digital marketing and entrepreneurship across the country.

Similarly, in collaboration with a private garment production company, 50 additional young persons are currently engaged in vocational skills training in dress making under the Steps Towards Employment and Productivity Project (STEP). At the end of the program, trainees would be engaged by the company.

In spite of the successes chalked in the half year, concerns were raised about the proliferation of Sports Associations and Federations which are not properly regulated and supervised and, in the process, they become a challenge for government to fund their promotional activities.

In this regard, Minister tasked the NSA to expediate action on the proposed classification exercise to ensure that certain requirements are met before government’s recognition and support.