The Minority in Parliament is demanding a broader investigation into Ghana’s controversial 2026 FIFA World Cup visa arrangements, arguing that a documentary trail now points beyond suspended former National Sports Authority (NSA) Director-General, Yaw Ampofo Ankrah, to a wider network of institutional actors whose roles, authorisations and financial dealings require scrutiny
Mr Ampofo Ankrah has been suspended pending further investigations into the controversy, but the Minority says accountability cannot stop with one official when correspondence and other documents involving the United States and Canadian embassies raise serious public-interest questions about the roles of the NSA, Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Ministry of Sports and Recreation and a private entity, TRIBE Culture Fest.
The four organisations allegedly facilitated the presentation of questionable visa applicants for people whose official status remains unclear.
At the heart of the controversy are questions over how individuals were presented to foreign missions as NSA personnel, affiliates or media practitioners, and who created, verified and authorised the institutional identities under which they applied for World Cup-related visas.
The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, said documents available to the Minority showed that the Fraud Prevention Unit of the United States Embassy had questioned the employment status of some applicants submitted by the NSA, and requested evidence establishing their relationship with the authority.
He said the Canadian Embassy had similarly sought clarification on the employment status, functions and reasons for travel of individuals presented as NSA-affiliated applicants.
Institutional accountability
Addressing a press conference in Parliament yesterday, Mr Assafuah welcomed President John Dramani Mahama’s removal of Mr Ampofo Ankrah but warned against treating the former NSA boss as the end of the accountability chain.
He added that the emerging evidence had transformed the issue from one concerning the conduct of an individual official into a wider test of institutional accountability.
“The dismissal of Yaw Ampofo Ankrah does not, by itself, resolve the issues before us. Accountability cannot and does not end with one individual,” he said.
“The documentary trail points to a wider chain of institutional involvement requiring further investigation, and the question has become: who created the institutional identities under which these people were presented to a foreign government?”
Mr Assafuah, the NPP MP for Old Tafo, said the controversy followed engagements involving the US Embassy, TRIBE Culture Fest, the NSA and the GTA concerning Ghana’s participation in the 2026 World Cup.
According to the Minority, those engagements subsequently fed into visa arrangements involving personnel or affiliates of the GTA and NSA travelling to the United States and Canada for World Cup-related tourism, cultural and promotional activities.
A major focus of the Minority’s case is a list of 102 people allegedly submitted by the NSA to the Canadian Embassy on June 8, 2026. Mr Assafuah said only 15 had been verified as NSA personnel, leaving the status of the remaining 87 requiring explanation.
He said the US Embassy’s Fraud Prevention Unit had separately raised concerns about four applicants and requested evidence confirming their employment with the NSA.
Some applicants, he alleged, were assigned positions that did not exist within the authority’s organisational structure, raising questions about who compiled and verified the lists and who authorised their transmission to the foreign missions.
The Minority is also seeking scrutiny of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between TRIBE Culture Fest and the NSA on June 2, 2025, establishing a strategic partnership for Ghana’s World Cup framework and other sports-related activities.
The agreement reportedly gave TRIBE operational access to NSA facilities for approved programmes, an arrangement Mr Assafuah said should form part of the investigation.
GTA media list questioned
The GTA is facing separate questions over a list of 50 people reportedly submitted to the US Embassy as media personnel for World Cup-related activities.
Mr Assafuah said due diligence by the Embassy’s Fraud Prevention Unit identified only Philip Narh and Andy Dosty, both associated with Multimedia Broadcasting Limited, as media practitioners, raising questions over the professional status of the remaining applicants.
The Minority also wants disclosure of the number of visa applications submitted through the GTA, how many were granted or refused and how any visa opportunities secured through the Authority were allocated.
Money trail
Financial transactions linked to the arrangements are also under scrutiny. Mr Assafuah said the NSA-TRIBE arrangement reportedly provided for charges of $3,000 per person for US processing and $2,000 for Canada, but alleged that some applicants were charged between $8,000 and $9,000, with other claims putting fees as high as $14,000.
Mr Assafuah stressed that those claims remained allegations requiring independent documentary and financial verification.
