Sports Minister explains $25 million funding for national teams

The Minister for Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif says the $25 million the government is seeking for the national teams is to ensure that there are more funds available in the Ministry’s budget to support other sporting disciplines and also complete the ongoing multi-purpose sports centres across the country.

On Monday, President Nana Akufo-Addo held a breakfast meeting with Chief Executive Officers from Corporate Ghana to raise funds for the national teams ahead of their respective competitions.

In the meeting, it was proposed that the country will need $25 million to fund the various competitions for all the national teams.

The government has already committed $10 million of the amount and formed a four-member committee headed by the Sports Minister to solicit for the remaining $15 million.

According to the Sports Minister, the budget of the Sports Ministry is wholly inadequate to fund the national teams thus the need to solicit support and make funds available for other sporting disciplines and the completion of the multipurpose sports centres.

“The reason why we have to raise this fund is to help the government focus on the budget to support our athletes for the Olympic Games and also completing the 10 multipurpose sports facilities we have started across the country”.

“We started 10 multipurpose centres in the country which has FIFA standard pitches. This to help the sports infrastructure deficits in the country. Once we are able to raise these funds, the monies that will be used to fund the Black Stars and other national teams will be used to complete the projects”, he added.

Another meeting has been scheduled on Friday 30 April with the Chief Executive Officers of Banks and the financial institutions to also solicit support.