Sports and Recreation Minister Kofi Adams says the now-abolished betting tax could have transformed Ghana’s sports sector if it had been managed properly and channelled directly into development programmes.
Speaking on JoyNews, the Minister revealed that although the concept of taxing betting companies was sound, the funds generated were not used to support sports.
“It would have been [a major support] if when they did that, it was being used for sports and not collecting it and using it for many other unnecessary things,” Mr Adams said.
“We would not have had the kind of problem that we had.”
He stressed that even the best ideas can become unpopular when poorly implemented.
“When something is good and is done badly, it becomes difficult to immediately change it and say, ‘let’s just drift it that way.’ It doesn’t work like that.”
Mr Adams announced that the government is now pursuing a structured and transparent National Sports Fund to provide consistent funding for sports infrastructure, athlete development, and key disciplines such as football, athletics, boxing, volleyball, and hockey.
“The government is introducing a Sports Fund that will provide us well-structured funding for sports. We do not have that currently,” he explained. “Because of it, our support for sporting activity has been very limited.”
He clarified that no new tax will be introduced. Instead, the fund will draw levies from existing revenue sources, meaning the public will not face additional financial burden.
“We are not introducing a tax… we are putting some levies on what already exists and taking a percentage of it. That’s all.”
He also confirmed that the Finance Minister’s budget will not include a new sports tax, though Parliament may decide otherwise.
Mr Adams emphasised good governance, insisting that the fund will be run by professional fund managers, not political appointees.
“It’s not going to be free money that you just come and take without accounting for any improvement.”
The Minister expects the fund to grow steadily as better systems and data are implemented.
“Initially it will not be much, but as it drives on and we begin to capture a lot of data, it will go into millions.”
