Minister of Sports and Recreation Kofi Adams has stated that existing stadiums in Ghana won’t be ignored in the face of President John Dramani Mahama’s promise to build seven new stadiums.
The Minister stated that the existing stadiums will be refurbished as part of the government’s drive to improve sports infrastructure in the country.
Ghana’s stadiums are largely in bad shape and the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi and Essipong Stadium in Sekondi have been shut down for renovation at the time of writing while a section of the Accra Stadium has been closed down due to safety reasons.
The condition of the stadium led to only 26,000 out of the 40,000 seating capacity being used for Ghana’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Mali.
He said this in an interview on Channel One News Room in the aftermath of President John Mahama’s statement on the construction of new stadiums.
“We are not just going to renovate, we are going to refurbish [existing stadiums]. When I took over [as Minister] and looking through the documents, huge sums of money, millions of cedis have been spent in the name of renovation but we don’t see anything.”
“We think that we must properly refurbish the stadia that we have to a standard that is very acceptable that will be worked on. We will also build in regions that do not have anything that they can refer to as a stadium” the Sports Minister said.
