The Minister of Youth and Sports, Isaac Kwame Asiamah, has bemoaned the poor maintenance culture of Ghanaians and called for strict adherence to maintenance standards with regard to the country’s sports facilities.

Mr Asiamah made the call during a visit to the Sekondi Sports Stadium at Essipong in the Western Region on Monday, 4 May 2020.

Renovation works have commenced on the stadium, which was built to host the Cup of Nations in 2008.

Speaking during the tour, Mr Asiamah said: “This is the beginning of renovation works of the sports stadium. As we are all aware, this stadium was built as part of sports facilities built to host the CAN 2008. Since the tournament, not much has been done in terms of renovation works. And here I want to bemoan the attitude of Ghanaians when it comes to maintenance culture. We have spent so much putting up these wonderful edifices but we leave it to rot. The same thing happened in Accra Sports Stadium and Kumasi”.

The Minister indicated that henceforth, adherence to maintenance culture will be enforced.

“I've said that I’m not going to be a Minister of complaints but a Minister who will fix challenges. We have seen the contractor [CISDAN Limited] on sight working. That is to say that we are here to get the job done. There is going to be strict adherence to maintenance culture here, and that for me is very critical. I have directed the National Sports Authority to liaise with the Regional Coordinating Council on that.”

For his part, Western Regional Minister Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah, expressed hope that the region will benefit from the facility after its renovation.

He stated: “This is big news for us and we know that in the next eleven months of the project, we will be able to also get the approval to do the second phase concurrently so that Western Region will get the full benefit of this huge edifice that we have”.