Mustapha Ussif promises to be Minister for all

Minister of Youth and Sports designate Mustapha Ussif took his turn to answer questions from the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Thursday.

Key amongst the assurances the Member of Parliament for Yagaba-Kubori in the North East Region gave was being a minister for all sporting disciplines and restructuring of bonuses and wages at tournaments.

According to Ussif, when given the nod to lead the Ministry of Youth and Sports, he will give equal attention to all sporting disciplines by developing infrastructure.

“Given the opportunity, all sporting activities will be given attention as a minister, especially when it comes to Para-sports, and I have already even engaged them – the Para Federation, to see their plans, so I will engage with them to see how we can improve.

“Because the problem we face as a country is the facilities for our brothers who are disabled, so we have to improve them so that they will be able to get the facilities to train, because they are winning medals for us when they go for Olympics and Commonwealth games. So, it is something that given the opportunity by this august house, together with the honorable members, we will see how best we can improve them,” he said.

On bonuses which has been a major issue in Ghana for some time now, Mr Ussif stated that he will hold stakeholder engagements to put up a comprehensive bonus structure that will be used during every single tournament under his watch.

“I will engage the stakeholders; GFA, National Sports Authority, Parliament and even the Ministry of Finance and even Attorney General to get a comprehensive bonus structure.

“So that when we have it, it is not when we have a tournament that we will now have to discuss bonuses; it will be known to all sportsmen and women in the country, so that we will not put bonuses ahead of representing our countries like I have seen in the past,” he added.