$3.4 Million Needed to Qualify Black Stars

... for 2010 World Cup
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka has indicated that the annual budget estimates to his Ministry for the 2009 fiscal year was not adequate, considering the sector's huge responsibilities.

According to him, since his Ministry was one of the newly re-created ones, a lot would have to be invested in it.

He argued that since the two wings of his Ministry (Youth & Sports) were drawn from the Ministries of Employment and Education respectively, it had little input in the preparation of the budget and that was posing a major challenge to the Ministry.

Alhaji Muntaka was speaking on the floor of Parliament yesterday when he moved the motion for the approval for the 2009 annual budget estimates of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

According to him, his Ministry has only two directors out of the four line directory that must be in place to ensure the smooth running of the operations of the Ministry, and this to him requires the recruitment of new personnel.

Another concern he raised was the renovation of the building housing the Ministry, which he said requires a lot of money.

He was disturbed about the inadequate budget allocation for the Ministry, considering the expenditure of the four agencies (National Sports Council, National Sports College, National Youth Council and the National Youth Employment Programme) under the Ministry.

He said the National Sports Council alone had thirty four associations under it. He noted that the Council's annual budget estimate alone for the 2009 fiscal year stands at $3, 489,379million (GH¢ 8,424,025 million), a situation he said was not adequate looking at the various events the country would be participating in both at the continental level and at the global level.

Alhaji Muntaka, in accessing the money needed to qualify the Black Stars, the country's senior national team, for the maiden world cup on African soil (South Africa 2010), said the team would need a total amount of US$3.4 million. In his statistics, he said the match which would be played against Benin on Sunday at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi would cost the Ministry $US 662, 000.00 and the match against Mali in Bamako would cost $US 531, 000.00, against Sudan in Khartoum would cost $US665, 000.00 with the return league in Accra costing the country $US537, 000.00.

According to him, the Black Stars match against Benin in Cotonou would again cost the country a total amount of US$498,000.00 whilst the match against Mali in Kumasi would cost US$541,000.00.

He said by qualification to the world cup, the Black Stars would be entitled to a whooping sum of US$6million from the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) and therefore called for the needed support to his Ministry in order to help the Blacks Stars qualify to get the amount at stake to finance other sporting discipline.

He was, however, of the hope that the House would consider his Ministry when looking at the supplementary budget for the 2009 fiscal year.

In all, a total amount of GH¢45, 77,162.07 was approved for the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

The House also approved the sum of GH¢ 147,681,167.00 for the Ministry of Finance, whilst GH¢4,206,832.00 was allocated for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).

The National Commission for Civic Education approved the sum of GH¢ 5,044,605.00 with the Electoral Commission being approved the sum of GH¢7,091,990 for the 2009 fiscal year.