Chief Executive Officer of DataBank Group, Kojo Addae-Mensah has bemoaned the lack of expediency attached to sports by successive governments and holds that a definite statement be made on the nation’s level of interest in sports.
Speaking on Happy FM’s Anopa Bosuo Sports, the shrewd financial expert and sports lover quizzed if the nation really had sports as one of its priorities. Citing the recent State Of The Nation address which was read by President Nana Akufo-Addo, Kojo Addae-Mensah expressed his dissatisfaction with the one sentence read as the State of Ghana Sports. “Sports hasn’t been given the needed attention it deserves and for me it’s worry. It’s been like this with successive governments and I hope it doesn’t continue. Honestly, I was disappointed when President Akufo-Addo took just a cursory look at sports in his maiden State Of The Nation address. I heard that the address was billed to be crisp and concise to reflect a departure from the old order which for me was great but I think there could have been a little more on sports especially coming from the back of our abysmal AFCON campaign.” Addae-Mensah said.
He further prayed that the already insufficient budget of the Ministry of Youth and Sports worth Ghc 22million won’t be slashed down as was the case in the previous administration where it was slashed from Ghc 35m to Ghc 22m.
“I’m only hoping that the national budget which will be read very soon won’t see that of the Ministry of Youth and Sports slashed as was the case in the previous administration. If sports is not high on our priorities as a nation, we can lay it bare so that the various federations like Weightlifting and taekwondo can then set their sights on the private sector for funding. ” Kojo intimated.