The Deputy Minister-Designate for Education, Clement Abas Apaak, acknowledged Ghana’s sports funding challenges during his vetting by Parliament’s appointment committee on Tuesday, February 25, 2025.
Addressing concerns about neglected grassroots sports, Apaak backed Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu to find creative funding solutions for school programs.
He expressed confidence that Iddrisu could close the gap by tapping private-sector support, especially at the school level.
“My Minister is a sports enthusiast himself, the challenges we face in sports is funding, I believe very strongly he will find private sectors to support sports in our schools” – Clement Apaak
Dep. Min Designate for Edu. is the latest to weigh in on sports funding.#CitiSports pic.twitter.com/lqMlLZ99eB
— Citi Sports (@CitiSportsGHA) February 25, 2025
Thank you Mr. Chairman. Sports is a very important activity, not just because it keeps us fit, but it’s also a source of great entertainments.
I have been a sportsperson, sportsman myself. I mean, I played volleyball.
One of my playing colleagues is seated right by the chairman. I played football. I played table tennis.
My younger brother, who is here, played basketball all the way to the national level. And you are right, it is not the way it used to be, and that should be a cause of worry.
My minister is a sports enthusiast himself. He plays football himself. And I think the challenge we face, as you rightly alluded to, is funding and is inadequacy.
Given that he is a sportsperson himself, I believe very strongly that he would find in genius ways to get private sector involvement to support sports in our schools, even as we look at what we can do to provide some support as a nation for sports and sporting activities to go on in our school system.
Sports cannot be neglected, a very important activity that ought to be supported. We all do it. We buy the footballs, the Jerseys and we provide the funding to support the district directories of education to organize sporting activities.
