Vice President and Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says his government will prioritise the establishment of the Ghana School Sports Secretariat to drive a school-based grass root development, which he said will form part of his broad vision for Ghana’s sports development.
“My government, as part of a broad sports development vision, will establish the Ghana School Sports Secretariat, which will be an agency under the ministry responsible for sports, in collaboration with other stakeholders such as the GES and sports federations.,”
Dr. Bawumia added that as part of his vision to make Ghana a hub for emerging sports in Africa, his government will also seek school-level collaboration with international sports bodies like the NBA and NFL to make Ghana a hub for these emerging sports in Africa, to create more opportunities for young people.
“We have already tried this with the NFL, the governing body for American Football, which agreed to host in Ghana, in 2022, the first ever NFL Flag Football in Africa after my engagement with them. This paved the way for 10 young Ghanaians to be selected to the United States to represent Africa in a global NFL tournament last year.”
“Another set of young Ghanaians, who were picked after the 2nd NFL Africa Football was also held in Ghana last year, are currently in the United States to represent Africa.”
Dr. Bawumia also identified inadequate funding as a major hindrance to the development of Ghana Sports, and revealed that under his government, there a shift away from the traditional, indequate sports to a modern, sustainable funding model.
The Vice President said, as President, his government “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.”