The Akufo-Addo administration has fulfilled just one promise in the area of youth and sports, according to data provided by the government.
The only promise out of 16 made was to establish a Youth Enterprise Fund to provide start-up funds for young entrepreneurs.
This fund is under the National Entrepreneurship and Innovations Plan (NEIP).
But promises that had to do solely with sports are yet to be executed.
Information provided by the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia at the 2020 townhall meeting in Kumasi indicated that among the sports promises being delivered are: to promote sporting disciplines other than football, to enact a comprehensive Sports Bill, Implement a women-in-sports program to support female athletes and unearth talents among others.
The current government has also failed to complete the construction of the University of Ghana Stadium which was started under John Kufuor, although it had earlier promised to do so.
The promises the government describes as pending are the pledges to institute a buy-local policy for government agencies with regards to ICT to ensure that applications and software are procured from local ICT firms, the promise to set up a Youth Development Authority to harmonize all youth initiatives and the promise to award scholarships to promising young athletes.
In its 2016 manifesto, the NPP spoke highly of these sectors saying “it is obvious that it is the youth who will drive the discovery of new technologies, innovation and growth in the future.”
“The NPP’s national youth policy is designed to help shape our youth for this role through developing leadership skills, quality education, entrepreneurship, job skills, creative skills and sports. We will create an enabling environment to build the capacity of our youth to take on more active roles in our country’s future and its development,” the party said in its manifesto.
In all, the government says it made 388 promises in its manifesto and that its most recent validation exercise showed that it had delivered or was delivering on 78 percent of the promises.
President Nana Akufo-Addo recently gave assurances that the government was committed to passing the Legislative Instrument (LI) on the National Youth and Sports Act.
He also said the government was pursuing the enactment of the draft National Sports College Bill amidst plans to create the Sports Fund to improve sports development in the country.