Sports budget doubled - Increased from GH₵ 21m to GH₵ 45.8m

The sports industry received a shot in the arm yesterday when the government voted GH¢45.8 million as budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Youth and Sports for the 2017 fiscal year, as was announced in Parliament yesterday by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.

The government’s expenditure allocation to the ministry represented a 218 per cent increment over that for the 2016 fiscal year, which stood at GH¢21 million.

The doubling of the sports budget halted a recent trend which saw the ministry suffer a reduction in government’s expenditure allocation in the last few years, as a result of which the National Sports Authority and other sports federations under it failed to get their share of government subvention in recent years.

Of the GHc45,834,144 voted for the Youth and Sports Ministry, GHc1 million will be used for capital expenditure.

Among the key projects expected to be undertaken by the ministry, as contained in the 2017 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, are the rehabilitation of the nation’s four main stadia in Accra, Kumasi, Tamale and Essipon, built a decade ago for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations tournament.

Work on the University of Ghana Sports Complex, work on which has been stalled for some years, will be completed this year, as well as the expansion of infrastructure stock of the National Sports College at Winneba to turn it into a centre of excellence under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.

Among the government’s medium-term targets for the sports industry this year is work on the passage of the National Sports College Bill and the revision of the 1994 National Sports Policy.