The Ministry of Sports and Recreation says it has saved about GH₵700,000 after reducing the budget allocated to the Black Stars for two international matches.
Speaking during a visit by Vice President Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang to the ministry, the sector minister, Kofi Adams, said the development represents a significant shift from past practices, where spending on the senior national team often exceeded GH₵1.5 million for similar engagements.
According to him, closer collaboration with the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and tighter controls on budgeting and fund releases have helped cut costs.
“We have worked together with the FA to make sure we rationalise our budgeting and release processes. This, in a way, has saved close to GH₵700,000 in two games involving the Black Stars because in the past, as a ministry, we used to do about GH₵2 million. With this rationalisation, we are doing GH₵1.3 million,” he explained.
Mr Adams also announced that a new governing board for the Ghana Sports Fund will be inaugurated on January 23, a move he said is intended to strengthen resource mobilisation to support sports development across the country.
Vice President Opoku-Agyemang, for her part, urged the ministry to pursue sustainable strategies to grow the Ghana Sports Fund, stressing that funding for sports should not rely solely on appeals.
“I want to urge that we find many, many ways of raising the funds beyond appeals and even creating the facilities that generate the funds and taking very good care of them,” she said.
She further encouraged ministries to regularly evaluate their performance against the targets set out in the government’s manifesto and take corrective action where necessary to improve outcomes.
