The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Usif has blamed the delay in the completion of the 10 Sports and Youth Resource centres initiated by the government on the tight fiscal space in 2021.
The centres were scheduled to be completed within a period of 18 months from the start of construction, but more than four years after the commencement of work, none has been completed.
The situation has left many questioning government’s commitment to the project.
However, taking his turn at the bi-weekly press briefings organised by the Ministry of Information in Accra on Sunday, Mr Usif said the delay was occasioned by some financial difficulties and not the lack of commitment.
He, however, noted that the financial hurdle had now been cleared, adding that, all contractors had mobilised back to site and were expected to complete with the first phase and commence with the second phase of the project.
Mr Usif said almost all the 10 centres were about 90per cent completed, stressing that “the government’s commitment towards these resource centres is not in doubt. All will be completed and handed over as soon as possible.
The Minister said in addition to the completion of the 10, the processes for the other six regions to also get their own had been initiated and Contractors would soon move to site to start work.
Touching on the country’s preparation towards the hosting of the 13th African Games, he said the University of Ghana, Legon Sports Stadium, one of the venues for the event was expected to be completed and handed to government by the end of the year.
Furthermore, he asserted that work was progressing steadily at Borteman.
The development, according to him, formed part of the country’s preparation forthe Games, for the first time since its inception.
Mr Ussif said Ghana opted for the hybrid system and that accounted for the use of the facilities at Legon and Borteman concurrently.
He said Government had budgeted about $200million for the hosting of the event.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL
