Sports Minister Kofi Adams says the government’s proposed Sports Fund will focus on developing infrastructure, nurturing athletes, and providing structured, accountable support for Ghana’s sporting disciplines.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on October 8, the Buem MP said the initiative is designed to give Ghana’s sports sector a permanent and sustainable source of funding.

“The sports fund will support sports infrastructure. It will support the growth of especially key sport areas — football is one of them, athletics,” he explained.

“I love athletics so much, sitting here, but we have not funded it enough. How many tracks do we have? Many schools are still running on undulating pitches where you have to look where to step because there are so many holes in the tracks. There’s no way you can produce Olympic-green athletes if you have such pitches.”

He said the fund will also support boxing, volleyball, hockey and other disciplines that have long been under-resourced.

“Boxing, amateur boxing and even professional boxing sometimes need support. We need to support them. Volleyball, of course, hockey and other things all need support,” he noted.

Mr Adams stressed that the fund will not be a pool of free money. Beneficiaries will have to justify their requests and account for how previous support was used.

“It’s not going to be free money that you just come and take without accounting for any improvement,” he said.

According to him, there will be independent fund managers to ensure transparency and fairness.

“There’s going to be fund managers that will be properly managed, not controlled by the political appointee, the minister. No. There will be fund managers who will manage that fund. People will have to apply and justify, go through a process so it will be fair and transparent,” he stated.

Mr Adams said such a structure is essential if Ghana wants to produce world-class athletes.

“Look, the Anthony Joshuas and the rest that came here — it was out of the British sports fund that supported athletes and created world boxing champions for them. We can also do that again,” he said.

“The only reason many of our athletes have not reached that level has been funding challenges. They are not able to get involved in competitions, they are not able to train more, and nutrition is poor.

"And if we have this kind of funding and we are going to support them right from the basic levels, all the way up, they will go very far.”

On how the fund will be financed, Mr Adams clarified that it will not introduce any new tax.

“We are not introducing a tax, but since that already exists, we are putting some levies on them and taking a percentage of it — that’s all that we are going to do,” he explained.

He added that the bill submitted to Cabinet and to be presented to Parliament contains no provision for a new tax.

“The bill that we have sent to Cabinet for Cabinet to approve, that is to be sent to Parliament, does not have any such provision of a new tax.

"If Parliament, in their wisdom, decides that they want to impose a tax to generate this fund, that will be Parliament’s decision, not what we are proposing now.”

Mr Adams believes the fund will take time to grow, but once established, it could generate millions annually.

“Initially, it will not be much, but as it drives on and we begin to capture a lot of data, it will go into millions,” he said.

The Sports Minister expressed confidence that the fund will finally give Ghana a consistent and transparent way to finance sports development and end the years of neglect that have held back local athletes.