<<Print>>

Youth and Sports Minister Nii Lante Vanderpuye, has disclosed that the Ministry is broke and that the perceived idea that the Ministry is capable of managing all the sporting disciplines is not the case.

He says the Ministry will largely depend on corporates bodies for support.

According to the sector Minister, the budget approved by parliament is not enough for the year and that something ought to be done about it.

Nii Lante Vanderpuye was speaking during a forum organized by the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) and sports journalists on Monday.

“Issues I want to talk about which is critical to me is that we are broke and I am saying this because tomorrow somebody would accuse me of not saying it as it is," he said.

He disclosed further that the Ministry secured a total of GHc22,560,580 from the Finance Ministry as its budget allocation for the year and out of this, GHc 11million would go into the payment of staff of the Ministry.

“Our total budget approved by parliament for the whole year is GHc22,560,580million, out this budget Ghc11million is for compensation; which is salaries for the workers of all the agencies such as the Youth Centres, Sports Colleges and the National Sports Authority,” he explained.

Nii Lante Vanderpuye further stated that out of the budget, GHc 4million will go into goods and services while GHc 7million seeks to undertake all sports programmes for the year.

"The budget for the national teams alone is about GHc42 million," he stated.

As Ghana prepares for the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio, the need for money is the ultimate for the various federations before and during the games.

“We will need close to about GHc 26 million for our Olympic team to go to Brazil in August. How do we manage?” he asked.

He said the Ministry needs support from cooperate bodies as the budget is not only meant for Sports but rather the Youth as well.