Vice President and Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says there will be a significant shift in sports funding by his government to ensure Ghana meets the needs for modern sports development.
Addressing Ghanaians on Wednesday, February 7 to unveil his vision for Ghana, Dr. Bawumia said Ghana sports has not realised its potentials, and he identified inadequate and lack of sustainable funding as a major hindrance.
“Sports is a multi-million dollar industry and an enabler for the youth,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“However, we have not realized our full sports potential, and we cannot maximize the full potential of Ghana sports, with the same funding module we have operated with since independence.”
To address it for Ghana Sports to thrive, Dr. Bawumia said as part of his new sports development vision as President, he “will have a major focus on policies, tax and other incentives to increase private and public investment”.
“My government will, therefore, prioritise the creation of incentives for corporate sponsorship as a sustainable module of financing sports development and promotion for our national teams, including football, athletics and boxing at all levels.
“This will take the financial pressure off government, and also enable government to redirect more support to other sports disciplines.”
Dr. Bawumia further stated that with a new funding module to boost activities of the various federations, government will redirect more funding to grassroot development by establishing the School Sports Secretariat, which will be an agency under the Ministry responsible for Sports, to drive grassroot sports through schools in conjunction with the Ghana Education Service and sports federations.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoah || Onua Sports
