National Sports Authority (NSA) Director-General Yaw Ampofo Ankrah has called for corporate sponsorship and stadium naming rights to generate funding for the maintenance of Ghana’s major sporting facilities.
Speaking during an inspection of the Accra Sports Stadium, Ampofo Ankrah highlighted corrosion caused by the facility’s proximity to the sea as one of the major challenges facing the stadium.
He said the location of the facility makes regular maintenance even more urgent, particularly because of the effects of salt and moisture on the stadium’s infrastructure.
“If you look upstairs, you see that because of where we’re situated, there’s corrosion on the sea. So beyond having a stadium regularly maintained, where we find ourselves gives it even more of an urgent [need], and that is a big, big problem.”
The NSA Director-General believes Ghana can look beyond government funding by attracting major corporate partners to invest in stadium infrastructure.
‘Emirates, Mercedes-Benz’ model
Ampofo Ankrah pointed to international examples where companies have secured naming rights to major stadiums and invested substantial sums in their upkeep.
“Other countries, they get corporates to name stadiums, Emirates, you know, Qatar, Mercedes-Benz, and they spend 200 million, 100 million dollars into that.”
He argued that Ghana needs to begin similar conversations with corporate organisations capable of providing long-term financial support for sporting infrastructure.
State funding alone not enough
According to Ampofo Ankrah, relying solely on government funding will not be sufficient to maintain the country’s stadiums to the required standard.
He believes the Sports Fund should play a leading role in developing partnerships and creating alternative sources of funding for sports infrastructure.
“So we need to have those conversations and I think the sports fund is primarily situated to lead and help in that direction. Otherwise, as everybody’s saying, state funding alone would not suffice here.”
His comments come as concerns over the condition and maintenance of the Accra Sports Stadium continue, with the NSA looking at longer-term solutions to protect the facility from deterioration.
