African Games: MP reveals how $15 million was spent on feeding athletes

Ranking Member on the Youth, Sports, and Culture Committee of Parliament, Kobena Woyome, has revealed that $15 million was spent on feeding athletes during the 2023 African Games.

The MP for South Tongu, therefore, called for further investigation into the details of how the monies were spent during the Games.

The budgets allocated for the African Games have come under the spotlight after the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) contradicted the Sports Ministry’s claim that $3 million was spent on the coverage of the Games.

Kobena Woyome calls for investigation into African Games expenditure

In an interview with Joy News, Woyome said a whopping $15 million was also spent on feeding the athletes who participated in the Games.

You are spending $245 million and out of that, we got to know that a whopping amount of $15 million was used to feed athletes for 18 days, the NDC legislator said.

You realise that some of these things needed to be investigated. We wanted to know how many athletes actually made it. How many got registered? In fact, we need to get a report from the games management system because the system must be able to tell us. How many actually game and participated in the Games. All these details we would want to know.

Meanwhile, the Sports Minister doubled down on its stance that it paid in excess of $3.5 million for the coverage of the African Games.

A statement released by sector Minister, Mustapha Ussif, said some media organisations submitted proposals to cover the Games but an agreement of $3.6 million was ultimately reached between the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and the Sports Ministry.

He explained that, as the official broadcaster for the Games, GBC elected to use the services of third parties to assist them in their production and coverage.

Mustapha Ussif said a total amount of $2.5 million was paid to the GBC, with the amount divided into two instalments of $1 million and $1.5 million.

The Sports Minister added that a separate $1 million was paid to the third parties based on the instructions of the GBC and as stated in their pre-agreed contract.

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