By Edzorna Francis Mensah
Parliament has approved a total of One Hundred and Ninety-Five Million, Seven Hundred and Ninety-Five Thousand, Nine Hundred and Seventy-Three Cedis (GH¢195,795,973.00) for the Ministry of Youth and Sports for its activities in the 2024 financial year.
Moving the motion for approval, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, said the country is adequately prepared to host the 13 All African Games slated for March 2024.
According to him, the Local Organising Committee (LOC) assured that all major sporting centres would be completed and handed over to the government for commissioning a month before the start of the tournament.
Presenting the committee’s report on the floor, chairman of the Youth Sports and Culture Committee, Kwame Agyenim-Boateng, admonished the LOC to ensure that the facilities are available and ready for the games.
In the year 2024, the Ministry will undertake several activities, and under Youth Services, the Ministry promised to finalise the Legislative Instrument for the Youth Act, Act 934, Completion of the remaining four (4) Youth Centres and commissioning of three (3) Youth Resource Centres — Axim, Koforidua and Wa.
Under Sports Development, the ministry will rehabilitate Baba Yara, Essipong, and New Edubiase sports stadia, prepare the National Sports College Bill, commission research and studies to develop a National Database on Sports and a module for determining the contribution of sports to GDP, and organise the National Inter-Districts Turf Football League.
The Committee, however, observed that the Ministry received additional funding amounting to Seventy-Seven Million, Sixteen Thousand, Eight Hundred and Eight Cedis (GH¢77,016,808.00) from the Ministry of Finance outside of its approved budget for the 2023 fiscal year.
The Committee was worried about this trend of continuous release of funds that have not been appropriated to the Ministry to cater for major sporting activities. But the Ministry informed the Committee that these additional funds released to the Ministry were drawn from the contingency vote with approval from the Ministry of Finance.
They further explained that it is difficult to adequately budget for international tournaments due to the possibility of not qualifying.
The Committee, however, urged the Ministry to streamline its activities for the ensuing year and report to the Committee on additional requests for funds for international sporting competitions.
