Sports Minister clarifies $47 Million African Games budget

The Minister for Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, has addressed claims surrounding the $47 million operational budget allocated for the Accra 2023 African Games, explaining that it encompasses various areas of expenditure beyond the competition dates of March 8 to March 23, 2024.

Ghana is set to host the African Games for the first time, welcoming over 13,000 participants, including 5,000 athletes, 3,000 technical officials, 3,000 volunteers, and 2,000 guests from 55 African countries.

Providing insights into the preparations and readiness of Ghana to host the African Games, Mr. Ussif clarified that there have been misunderstandings regarding the intended use of the budget. 

He shed light on the breakdown of the $47 million operational budget, which is designated for the Local Organising Committee (LOC) to cover various operational aspects of the competition.

"The estimated amount of $47,712,853.65 is designated to cover the operations of the LOC," Mr. Ussif explained. "These operations include technical meetings with TCAG, preparation of relevant guidelines, rules, regulations, and manuals, sensitization efforts, games management system, accommodation for participants (including athletes, volunteers, and officials), internal transportation, airfare for officials, catering services, security, allowances, accreditation, medical equipment, athlete medals, office rent, logistics, equipment purchase, Anti-Doping services, and members’ allowances."

He further highlighted that unlike football tournaments where accommodation costs for teams are covered by the Confederation of African Football, the host country is responsible for covering the hotel bills of all participating football teams, which is also included in the budget.