By Edzorna Francis Mensah
Parliament has approved a total of One Hundred Ninety Five Million, Seven Hundred Ninety Five Thousand, Nine Hundred Seventy Three Cedis (GH¢195,795,973.00) for its operations for the 2024 financial year.
Advancing the approval motion, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustafa Usif, said the country is adequately prepared to host the 13 All African Games scheduled for March 2024.
According to him, the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) has assured that all major sports centers will be completed and handed over to the government for commissioning one month before the start of the tournament.
Presenting the committee’s report at the podium, the chairman of the Youth Sports and Culture Committee, Kwame Agyenim-Boateng, warned the LOC to ensure that the facilities are available and ready for the games.
In the year 2024, the Ministry will undertake various activities and under Youth Services, the Ministry promised to finalize the Legislative Instrument on the Youth Law, Act 934, Completion of the remaining four (4) Youth Centers and commissioning of three (3) Youth Resource Centers — Axim, Koforidua and Wa.
Under Sports Development, the ministry will rehabilitate the Baba Yara, Essipong and New Edubiase sports stadiums, prepare the National Sports College bill, commission research and studies to develop a National Sports Database and a unit on determining the contribution of sports to GDP and organize the National Inter-District Turf Football League.
The Committee, however, noted that the Ministry received an additional funding of seventy seven million, sixteen thousand, eight million and eight Cedis (GH¢77,016,808.00) from the Ministry of Finance out of its approved budget for the 2023 financial year.
The Committee was concerned about this trend of continuous release of unallocated funds to the Ministry to cover major sporting activities. But the Ministry informed the Committee that these additional funds released to the Ministry were drawn from the extraordinary vote with the approval of the Ministry of Finance.
They further explained that it is difficult to have an adequate budget for international tournaments due to the possibility of not qualifying.
The Committee, however, urged the Department to streamline its activities for the coming year and report to the Committee on additional requests for funding for international sports events.
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