Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, has thrown his support behind the Ghana Sports Fund Bill, 2025, while cautioning against using athletes as a funding source.
Addressing Parliament on Thursday, December 18, 2025, he backed the Parliamentary Select Committee on Youth and Sports’ assessment that the bill is urgent.
He reminded the House that the Sports Fund Bill was initiated and drafted during his tenure as part of a long-term plan to secure sustainable financing for sports.
Mr. Ussif highlighted the persistent difficulties athletes face, particularly in accessing basic equipment and facilities.
“Equipment is a major challenge, not to talk of even facilities,” he said, noting that hosting the African Games helped temporarily ease some of these gaps.
“We only had to leverage on hosting the African Games we hosted last year to get most of these equipment for some of these national teams and that’s why some of them are now doing well,” he noted.
He stressed the importance of proper equipment in preparing athletes for international competition.
“Some of them use these equipment to train so that they can represent us well,” he said.
On funding, he questioned the reliability of budgetary allocations, citing delays in releases.
“The sources of funding indicated in the report, apart from the budgetary which we all know in this country, even the releases is a problem,” he told the House.
