Government Accepts Proposal To Raise Money For Sports

The government has accepted a proposal from the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) which sought to tax about one percent on some imported goods to raise money to assist sporting activities in the country. Professor Francis Doudoo, President of the GOC made this known at the closing ceremony of a five-day capacity building training workshop for 21 Sport Administrators from Central Region at Winneba. He further stated that the GOC is also considering pushing another proposal for tobacco, alcoholic and soft drink companies to pay tax on their products to support maintenance of facilities at the various stadiums. According to Prof Doudoo, government alone cannot provide financial support for the management of Sports, hence the need to devise measures to raise funds from other sectors. The participants were drawn from Ghana Police Service, University of Education, Winneba (UEW), University of cape Coast (UCC), Ghana Education Service (GES), Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), prison Service and Ghana National Fire Service. He stated about one million Ghana Cedis is expected to be generated through these taxes within a year for sports development. Professor Doudoo said Ghana should invest heavily in sporting activities else it would not be able to participate in both international and local competitions. Prof. Doudoo said GOC is poised to organize more of such courses for sport Administrators in the middle of this year to sharpen their skills He therefore urged the participants to share the knowledge they have acquired at the course with their colleagues to enable them contribute their quota to the development of sports. Professor H. A. Pufaa, National Course Director of Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) called for more sponsorship packages from Olympic Solidarity and other Sports development partners. Mr Joe Kpenge, Director of Winneba Sports College, commended various organizations especially Security Agencies for releasing their personnel to participate in such an important course. He said the college would soon receive a massive facelift this year as announced by the President John Dramani Mahama in his state of the nation address. Mr Kpenge said the college has launched Community Coaching and Educational Programme for volunteer coaches in and around the college as part of its efforts to develop Sports in the Central Region.