Minister of Youth and Sports, Kofi Adams, has confirmed plans to comprehensively refurbish Ghana’s existing sports facilities, despite President John Dramani Mahama’s pledge to construct seven new stadiums next year.
Currently, two key venues — the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi and the Essipong Stadium in Sekondi — have been shut down for renovation. Several others have deteriorated due to years of poor maintenance. The Accra Sports Stadium, Ghana’s only arena certified to host CAF and FIFA-sanctioned matches, has also had sections cordoned off for safety reasons.
Speaking in an interview with Channel One, the Buem MP stressed that the ministry’s approach will go beyond surface-level fixes.
“We are not just going to renovate, we are going to refurbish [existing stadiums],” Adams said. “When I took over and looked through the documents, huge sums of money, millions of cedis, have been spent in the name of renovation, but we don’t see anything. We think that we must properly refurbish the stadia that we have to a standard that is very acceptable.”
Adams further revealed that government also intends to extend sports infrastructure to underserved regions.
“We will also build in regions that do not have anything that they can refer to as a stadium,” he added.
