David Tagoe
21 December 2011
In what can be described as a sorry development, GFA President, Kwesi Nyantakyi says kits meant for the senior national team, the Black Stars for next month’s Africa Cup of Nations are still locked up at the port, following the football federation’s inability to pay duty on the kit and get them cleared.
Nyantakyi told Happy FM that the GFA needs over GH ¢140,000 to clear the kit, but currently, the football federation lack the financial wherewithal to ensure clearance of the goods from the port.
According to him, the GFA has written to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to intervene to enable them clear the goods, but after weeks of the notification, nothing has been heard from the minister.
“If we wait for a while and we get to the crunch, perhaps, we may have to go in for a loan somewhere to clear the goods”, Nyantakyi said jokingly, but obviously, with some amount of disappointment in his voice.
Although he expects the Ministry to intervene, he is not under illusion that it is only parliament that can do something about the law to ensure that bodies such as the GFA is exempt from the payment of duty in order to avert any such embarrassment in future.
He added that until that is done, not even the ministry, which the FA looks up to can do something about the situation in which the GFA finds itself.
Interestingly, at a time the GFA finds itself in dire financial straits, and can’t pay duty to clear its goods from the port, the football federation has $11million dollars with the ministry over which they are dialoguing and hoping some kind of deal would be struck for them to their share.
The $11million is the GFA’s share of money for teams that played in the last World Cup, and also for qualifying to play in the quarter final of the World Cup. The money is now in the custody of the ministry because Ghanaians are told that the ministry pre-financed the Black Stars’ participation at the World Cup.
AllAfrica – All the Time