The construction of the FIFA standard artificial football turf being undertaken by the Ghana Football Association at Bolgatanga continues to make progress irrespective of the refusal of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to grant custom duties Exemption for the materials imported for the project.
Although the Ministry of Youth and Sports, GFA, and other key stakeholders of the region gave the application their full push, the Ministry of Finance, after a long period of consideration, rejected the Exemption requested for the project materials.
The project, which is under the supervision of the FIFA Development office, required Import duties Exemption to ensure that cost is kept at the lowest levels possible to save money for other projects for the Ghana Football Association.
The GFA had to use additional FIFA Forward Project funds to clear the materials, which had been at the Tema Port since December 2022 in anticipation of receiving Duties Exemption as has been done in countries like Rwanda, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Irrespective of the challenges with custom duties, demurrage charges, and the delays, the materials were finally cleared last Friday and have arrived at the Bolgatanga project site.
Members of the GFA and all stakeholders would recall that the GFA acquired over 6 acres of land at Bolgatanga for the construction of the Upper East Regional Technical Centre.
When fully completed, the centre, will house the head office of the Regional Football Association, a FIFA Standard artificial football turf capable of hosting all matches, including elite domestic competitions.
Currently, all clubs from the then Upper East Football Region (now Upper East and Savannah Regions of Ghana) which qualifies for the Premier League, Division One League and the Women’s Premier League trek to Tamale in the Northern Region of Ghana to play their matches due to lack of a playing pitch that meet the minimum club Licensing requirements.
Taking a cue from the Prampram Land which was left unprotected, the GFA has walled the entire land at great cost. Commuters of the Bolgatanga high way have already noticed that walls have been erected to protect the land.
The project will see the completion of the FIFA standard artificial football turf with inner perimeter to host matches from grassroot football to Premier League level. The field of play will also have floodlights linked to the national grid for night matches.
In the second phase of the project, the GFA plan and its partners plan to build a spectators stand, dressing rooms, match officials room and other offices to house the RFA Secretariat until the Main Secretariat building is constructed.
This project will become the model for all GFA Regional Technical Centres across the country.
It must be noted that even the Football for Schools Project, which will provide free footballs for 3,000 government schools, is yet to be granted tax exemption as has been done in other African countries.
The GFA, in an attempt to avoid another demurrage payment, has cleared the footballs while the Ministry of Finance considers the Exemption application from the Ministry of Education for the footballs for the schools project.
It is the hope of the GFA that the Exemption issues for Sports projects such as this, and clearing of national team jerseys which the GFA still continues to pay is brought to a logical conclusion in the not too distant future.
The first phase of the project will be completed by April this year.
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