On Tuesday
28th June, 2022 the Minister for Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif Inaugurated a
five- member committee with the task to raise funds for the upcoming FIFA World
cup scheduled for Qatar in November this year and other international
engagements by the national teams.
Inaugurating
the Committee, the Minister noted that government alone cannot shoulder the
responsibility of providing the needed finance and logistics for the
international competitions due to budgetary constraints hence the formation of
the committee.
He used the
opportunity to extend his profound gratitude to corporate Ghana for responding
positively to the President's call at a breakfast meeting with corporate Ghana
and Chief Executive Officers of institutions to solicit funds in support of the
national teams last year to enable the national teams prepare feverishly for
international competitions.
He mentioned
that the Ministry has a number of activities and international engagements it
has to undertake which heavily depends on logistics and finance such as the
Women under 20 female World cup in Costa Rica, the World athletics championship
in Oregon, USA, the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, participation of the
Black Stars in the 2023 Africa Cup of nations qualifiers to Cote D'Ivoire and
the hosting of 55 African countries for the 13th African Games in 2023 adding
that the support has yielded positive results hence the qualification of the
Black Stars to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the qualification of the Black
Princesses to the women under 20 World Cup in Costa Rica.
In his
welcome remarks, the Chief Director of the Ministry, Alhaji Hafiz Adam
indicated that the Black Stars is the power house of African football and their
participation in the world cup is of paramount interest to the nation and
Africa as a whole, therefore, it was important to galvanise support from the
public to prepare the team adequately for the World Cup and other international
competitions.
In his
acceptance speech, the Chairman of the committee, the Deputy Minister for Youth
and Sports, Evans Opoku Bobie expressed his gratitude to the Minister for his
vision to constitute the committee and assured the Minister of their readiness
to begin the engagement with various organisations and individuals to support
this worthy cause.
The committee
had been given the task to identify credible institutions and individuals ready
to support the worthy cause, identify other non-monetary sponsorships from
corporate institutions within and outside Ghana and also collect from sponsors
and transfer of funds mobilised to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to support
the process.
The members of
the committee include the Deputy Minister of youth and sports, Evans Opoku
Bobie as chairman and other members are John Kumah Deputy Minister of Finance,
George Mireku Duker, Deputy Minister of Lands and natural resources, Andrew
Egyapa Mercer, Deputy Minister of Energy with the secretary being Irene Sakyi,
Chief Accountant of the Ministry.
Source:classfmonline