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We were not paid $3million for 13th African Games – GBC refutes Sports Minister’s claim
The Sports Minister, Mustapha Ussif during a Public Account Committee hearing yesterday, August 19, said, the official broadcaster of the 13th African Games, the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation was paid over $3 million for its coverage.
Responding to a question from Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Samuel Nartey George, the minister said “GBC was the official broadcaster for the 13th African Games and I can confirm that full payment has been made.”
He further added that “I can recollect the exact amount, but I know that it is in excess of $3 million dollars for their coverage of the African games.”
However, in a sharp rebuttal, the Director General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Prof. Amin Alhassan, has refuted the assertions made by the Sports Minister, Mustapha Ussif.
According to Prof Amin GBC only received $105,000, adding that his outfit was only brought into the discussions just one month before the event.
In an interview with the State broadcaster, he said“I think yesterday I was one of those who was shocked to learn that the minister of youth and sports said that they had paid GBC in excess of $3 million and I want to assure every Ghanaian and the public that GBC’s total benefit from the African Games was $105,000 us dollars equivalent.”
He added that “Nothing more was paid as a benefit to GBC. And that payment was as support for the fact that we dedicated an entire channel 24 hours. We suspended normal programming for the GTV Sports+ and dedicated it to the All African games. And for our role as the official broadcaster. that is what the GBC was paid and not in excess of $3 million.”
“When you suspend a channel’s normal programming, there is an opportunity cost, so it’s used to offset the cost of the channel not doing regular programming. So there is a loss of business. So it’s important to point out that when you take an entire channel 24 hours for two weeks, it comes at a cost, and that was what the money was for. So it was for our revenue. $105,000 and not in excess of 3 million dollars,”Prof. Amin Alhassan further explained.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme