On February 7, 2025, Kofi Adams was sworn in as Minister for Sports and Recreation, along with sixteen other Ministers.

Out of the seventeen, eight were regional ministers.

Since then, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama has appointed the heads of institutions for the various agencies or authorities under these ministries.

Ghana Health Service, Ghana Cocoa Board, National Communications Authority, etc. have all had their heads of institutions appointed.

All of them but the National Sports Authority.

The delay is not unusual. Sports has always been treated as the stepchild.

Kofi Adams at his swearing in as new Sports and Recreation Minister

Even the appointment of the current minister had an asterisk to it. Grapevine sources have said that Kofi Adams's biggest trump card was Mahama's need to achieve regional balance. Thus, when Mahama realized that the Oti Region, where Adams comes from, was not well represented, the Buem MP jumped ahead of the queue.

Kofi Adams may not like that narrative. But he does not need that.

What he, the Mahama-led administration, and Ghana need, is a futuristic, yet practical, resourceful, and perceptive side-kick to head the National Sports Authority.

Why a sidekick? Let's take it back to yesterday.

Making the NSA subservient to the Ministry

Per Article 195 of the 1992 Constitution, the president appoints the Director General of the NSA. The same law makes the right to termination of appointment a prerogative power of the president.

This makes him answerable to the president and only the president alone. That means even in situations where the governing board of the NSA or the sector minister is dissatisfied with his or her performance, they can only report him to the president.

To that extent, the last four years have been a classic example of why this is a recipe for disaster.

Professor Peter Twumasi, the NSA Director General from 2018 and 2024, defied the NSA board and the sector minister Mustapha Ussif on many occasions.

https://twitter.com/GTV_Ghana/status/1754573311172837827?t=D211GiDCLCL-dFEn9cjxHg&s=08

On one occasion, he sabotaged the transfer of Alex Atieku, after the central regional head had disrespected the Sports Minister.

Atieku had refused to allow a pitch maintenance expert to work on the Cape Coast Stadium. His reason? He would only answer to Prof. Peter Twumasi.

Such was the power of the Director General, and the extent to which he abused it.

In June 2022, subordinates of Prof. Twumasi filed a petition against him, accusing him of, among many things, procurement breaches.

As it is with most corruption-related issues under the Akufo-Addo government, it was swept under the carpet. Not even the allegations of award of contracts to ghost companies, taking double salary, or the strange disappearance of the Toyota Hilux were sufficiently investigated and addressed.

But I digress.

The mere possibility that one person at the NSA, irrespective of their rank, can unilaterally award contracts, without recourse to procurement laws, should force a rethink of how the Director General is appointed, who appoints him, and who he or she answers to.

Former NSA boss, Prof. Peter Twumasi

To continue with the provisions of Article 195 would be akin to endorsing the nasty, self-destructive intra-agency and inter-agency politics that shackled the sector for six years.

As the functioning arm of the Sports Ministry, it would make sense that its highest officer is subservient to the sector minister, in practice and by law.

Funding the NSA

The NSA has been a dysfunctional entity since the beginning of time. However, even its biggest critics will agree that it has been under-resourced for just as long.

Each year, the NSA joins the endless list of state entities and organizations that queue to be fed from the consolidated fund.

In a good year, like 2024, the NSA receives subventions in two out of the four quarters. Otherwise, the NSA has to settle for a quarter’s subvention instead of four in a year.

And no, before you ask about arrears, the government does not pay what it failed to pay in the previous year. Had that been the case, the NSA could take loans to fund its operations.

Beyond that, the NSA’s other sources of income include the 10% from gate proceeds from football matches.

Per the Ghana Football Association, the average amount realized as gate proceeds from a Category B Ghana Premier League match is GH₵50,000.

A category C match averages GH₵15,000 from ticket sales. That means, the NSA makes GH₵5,000 and GH₵1500 from these games.

The Accra Sports Stadium

To put matters into perspective, the Authority spends approximately GH₵75,000 on electricity to power the Accra Sports Stadium monthly. That is just one of five functional facilities – Aliu Mahama, Baba Yara, Cape Coast, and TnA Stadiums have similar electricity costs too. Then there is the Essipong Sports Stadium which is currently not operational.

Without money to fund its operations, the NSA will remain nothing but a spineless entity that only supervises elections of the various federations under its umbrella.

For a country going through austerity, any mention of additional funding will be met with a resistance fiercer than the Italian partisans of World War II.

But needs must, so Kofi Adams has to find a way of funding the NSA.

Last year, the Ghana Revenue Authority projected to receive GH₵ 1.2 billion ($78.4 million) in betting taxes.

Meanwhile, Ghana's entire sports budget for the year was GH₵ 195,795,973, the equivalent of $12.8 million.

If Kofi Adams’s clout is as good as his followers say it is, he should be able to cut through the maze of bureaucracy and politics and convince the cabinet to carve out a chunk of the country’s annual earnings from betting tax to fund sports.

Given the National Democratic Congress’s (NDC) super majority status in parliament, securing parliamentary approval should be a mere formality.

Resetting the NSA

Perhaps the most important aspect of the NSA’s reset has to do with carrying out its mandate.

In the run-up to the 2024 elections, the NPP campaigned heavily on their ‘record’ of ‘unprecedented infrastructural drive’. Dr, Mahamudu Bawumia, the party’s flagbearer claimed that the Akufo-Addo government had constructed over 150 artificial pitches.

Assuming without admitting that this was true, the fact that only two of the number meet licensing specifications for competitive football is a massive red flag.

Yet, the government sunk more than $30 million on these facilities.

In the grand scheme of affairs, the NSA ought to set the standard for specifications and ensure that before a centimeter of artificial grass is laid, the entire project meets all specifications, including safety and security considerations.

But the NSA, in what is a dangerous mix of perpetual oblivion, in part, and outright negligence, has shirked its responsibility in setting the standard.

That is why misfits like the Nana Koromansah II Park continue to host matches when it is not fit for purpose.

Eight years ago, a little bird whispered into my ears, how some of the country’s most profitable football clubs are avoiding tax by registering as non-governmental organizations and other crude means.

That problem has metamorphosed into a situation where even for those who do not bother to skirt the laws, the NSA has literally no say in whether they meet the modern definition of a football academy.

If you were to audit the various athletics clubs, boxing gyms, etc. that are littered all over the country, you would arrive at the same conclusion; they do not meet the modern definition of what they ought to be.

Something has to change.

The NSA's reputation may be battered, but it still does not change its constitutional mandate.