There Is Hope For Sports Development – Sports Minister

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Isaac Asiamah believes there is hope for the development of sports in the country despite 35 percent budget slash.

Following Wednesday’s reading of the 2018 Budget and Financial Statement by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, it has emerged that the budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Youth and Sports for the 2018 year has been cut by 35 percent.

In 2017, the Ministry was given a budget of GHc46, 910, 275 for its activities. For 2018, the Youth and Sports Ministry will have GHc32, 799, 500 to work with for all activities and programmes.

Despite the budget been slashed by 35 percent, the Member of Parliament for the people of Atwima Mponua constituency is adamant there is hope for the development of sports.

“Everything about sports is in the budget. I will urge every individual to read the budget carefully and everyone will see that everything that is in relation to sports is in the budget. Our performance in 2017 and what we intend doing next year have been captured in the budget." he told Class FM.

“We have got an allocation from the common fund to support youth development. We were given GHc76, 000, 000, 00 and I am very optimistic that in 2018 the money will go up. It is good because over the years the emphasis was only on the development of sports leaving the youth out.” He added.

However, the budget also stated that Ghana would be taking part in a number of international competitions such as Youth Olympics Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina from the 6th to the 18th of October, 2018.

Other activities the budget captured were the African Youth Games in Algeria and the Commonwealth Games in Australia.

The Black Stars, the Black Princesses, the Black Starlets and Black Satellites will be involved in various qualifiers for various competitions.