Time to regain Ghana’s glory in Sports – Minister

Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Minister for Youth and Sports has charged the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) and the National Sports Authority (NSA) to develop measures to improve upon Ghana's performance at international games.

“Our performance at the last two international games was not impressive. We did not do so well at the All Africa Games in Maputo and London 2012 Olympic Games was no better, and it's time we reverse this negative trend.

“Ghana used to have an enviable record in the Commonwealth Games, but we lost our glory over the last years, and 2014 should be the turning point.”

Launching Ghana’s campaign for 2014 Commonwealth Games slated for Glasgow, Scotland, dubbed “Renaissance for Ghana Sports”, the minister said the renaissance starts now, and the nation must do everything possible to get the best of athletes to represent Ghana at the competition.

Afriyie-Ankrah said his outfit was in discussions with the Ministry of Finance Economic Planning to work out modalities for giving corporate bodies the needed tax rebate for investing in sports.

He said corporate bodies have yet to receive adequate benefits from investments in sports, hence the need to work tax rebates to serve the motivation to invest more in sports.

Ben Nunoo-Mensah, Chef de Mission of Ghana at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, said the launch was aimed at creating the platform for the corporate world to support Ghana’s participation at the competition.