The Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Professor Peter Twumasi, has defended his decision to rent out the Accra Sports Stadium for concerts in December last year, neglecting sporting activities.
The organization had announced that the Accra Sports Stadium would be unavailable for sports during the festive period, leading to three Ghana Premier League clubs relocating their home games to other league centers far from home.
The venue was, however, made available for social events, including Stonebwoy’s Bhim Concert, which reportedly generated about GHS70,000 in revenue.
The decision led to mass criticism from Ghanaians, but upon facing the Public Accounts Committee on Monday, Twumasi defended his decision, claiming there is nothing wrong with doing that.
“Before we shifted our sporting activities to other stadia, we made mention of this to all stakeholders: in December, a particular period will be used for other events which are not sporting, and the revenue for it should be able to recover entirely everything,” he said.
“Other non-sporting activities occurring in our stadia are not new. This is not the first time Professor Twumasi is granting permission for the usage of the facilities for other non-sporting activities. It’s done all the time.”
He cited events like the Independence Day celebrations, held at various stadiums across the country, emphasizing that revenue generated from these non-sporting events contributes to maintaining and recovering the facilities.
“Even Independence Day celebrations, we held events at the Tamale, Cape Coast, Baba Yara Stadium but the question is are you able to recover expenses and get back to the sporting activities? Yes, we do. We do recover,” he added.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Pius Asack|Ghana
