NDC's Proposal To Pay Local Players Ghc1,500 Monthly Questioned

Vice president of policy think tank IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil has questioned the NDC’s proposal to pay local players ¢1,500 per month should they win power in December.

The opposition National Democratic Congress has vowed to pay local players average of Ghc1,500.

“The NDC will establish a sports development fund. The government will furnish the account with enough money and also generate some from corporate bodies,” the Director of Communications for the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi told Kumasi FM.

“Every club that plays in the Premier League will be supported with funds to settle player salaries. An average money of GH ¢1,500.00 will be paid to each player”.

The sustainability of the proposal has been questioned by the media.

However, according to Mr Bentil quiz why any government would “pay footballers to play football”.

His is based on the fact that Ghana Premier League clubs are registered as private companies whose core staff are the players.

A question on his official Facebook page read: "If players will be paid to play football there’s no reason you should not pay the staff of my private company."

Sammy Gyamfi further stressed that the NDC will also establish a sports development fund which will cater for all investments in the sports sector while Ghanaian clubs who represent the country in the CAF inter-club competitions will receive financial support.

It is not the first time the NDC’s promise has been challenged. Earlier cousin of the president Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko highlighted the cost of fulfilling the promise on taxpayers and dismissed it, saying the NDC do not mean it.

Sports development has taken centre stage this week as one of the main campaign pillars going into the December 2020 elections.