New sports fund for University of Ghana

The University of Ghana Sports Directorate has launched a sports fund designed to facilitate and support the development of student-athletes who are admitted to the institution.

According to the Director of Sports of the University of Ghana, Dr Bella Bello Bitugu, the fund which has been named the University of Ghana Sports Fund (UG-SF) becomes operational on August 1, 2017 and will also cater for the construction as well as maintenance of existing sports facilities at the University of Ghana campus in Legon.

In an address at a ceremony to launch the fund last Thursday in Accra, Dr Bitugu said although the fund was not the first of its kind among Ghanaian universities, he expressed the hope that it would attract the best sporting talents to the University of Ghana (UG).

Launching the fund, the Vice Chancellor of UG, Professor Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, said it was essential for the nation to have successful sportsmen and sportswomen who were also brilliant academically hence the need for a sports fund.

The event attracted some high profile personalities including the CEO of the McDan Group, Dr Daniel McKorley, and the Ghana Football Association president, Kwesi Nyantakyi.

Dr McKorley pledged a GH¢100,000 to the fund while many others, including the Ghana Football Association, CEO of Rite Sports, Yaw Sakyi Afari, former national athlete, Reks Brobbey, made undisclosed pledges.

It was later announced that pledges on the day totalled GH¢250,000 and the donors were presented with Black Stars jerseys autographed by members of the senior national football team. The jerseys were presented to the University of Ghana Sports Directorate by the GFA.

The University of Ghana Sports Directorate later appointed some individuals as Sports Ambassadors and Patrons of the school. They are Dr McKorley (Honorary Patron), Kwesi Nyantakyi (Football Patron) and Yaw Sakyi (Basketball Patron).