Sports and Recreation Minister Kofi Adams has accused Tribe Culture Fest chief executive Nana Boateng Gyimah of fuelling visa fraud allegations against him and other government officials to avoid refunding about $611,000.
The allegations have been led by Old Tafo MP Vincent Ekow Assafuah. Mr Adams claims Mr Gyimah provided the MP with false information to divert attention from money he allegedly collected unlawfully under an agreement with the National Sports Authority (NSA) to transport Ghanaians to the 2026 World Cup.
He said the Tribe Culture Fest CEO was now promoting competing accounts of events to obscure the circumstances surrounding the payment. The minister also referred to an individual identified as SFY during the interview, saying that person was releasing information publicly for the same purpose.
“He cannot run away with $611,000 of people’s money. We must make sure that we get him, and if it is found that right from the word go, he deceived the people, we must take the appropriate criminal actions,” Mr Adams said.
Speaking on TV3 on 11 October 2026, Mr Adams also addressed the controversy surrounding a list of 90 people submitted for United States visa processing ahead of Ghana’s participation in the FIFA World Cup.
He said the US Embassy had asked the ministry to verify four people listed as NSA employees in a submission made directly by the authority on 18 March 2026. That submission predated the ministry’s formal arrangement with the NSA.
Mr Adams said he contacted the NSA Director-General and requested the individuals’ staff identification numbers, salaries, employment dates and duty stations. The Director-General, he said, confirmed that none of the four was an NSA employee.
The minister then responded to the embassy’s request, signing a verification note to say the individuals were not known to either the ministry or the NSA. He stressed that the four names came from an earlier submission and were not included in the disputed list of 90.
No embassy complaint over 90 names
Mr Adams denied claims that people on the 90-name list had been falsely described as NSA staff or board members. He said the names were submitted as event coordinators and facilitation personnel.
“No formal communication has been received from the embassy alleging that any of the names had been misrepresented,” he said. “Till now, we don’t have any such information that anybody was misrepresented on that list, the 90 list. No such information exists anywhere.”
He added that neither the US Embassy, the NSA nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had formally reported irregularities involving the 90 applicants. The minister said the current claims appeared to merge information from the earlier four-person verification request with the later list.
1,023 applications processed
Mr Adams said about 1,023 visa applications were processed across the relevant categories, including categories A and B1/B2, but only 441 applicants received visas.
The ministry’s responsibility, he explained, was to facilitate the submission of names. Applicants were responsible for completing their forms and attending appointments.
He noted that some ministry officials with verifiable employment records, salaries and payslips were refused visas, arguing that a refusal did not by itself prove misrepresentation. The ministry, he said, did not decide which applicants would ultimately receive visas.
