Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has clarified that Parliament is not financing the proposed partnership between English Premier League club Sunderland AFC and Ghana’s ‘Visit Ghana’ campaign.
According to the Speaker, the initiative is being driven and funded by private-sector interests, with Parliament providing leadership and support to facilitate the proposed deal.
Mr Bagbin made the clarification when he first announced the discussions with Sunderland in Parliament in August.
He disclosed at the time that negotiations with the English club were at an advanced stage, but stressed that no final agreement had been announced and did not disclose the financial value of the proposed partnership.
“We are entering a formal engagement with them to put Visit Ghana on their jerseys and all paraphernalia.
We have gone far with the discussions, and they are showing interest,” he said.
The Speaker also stated explicitly that Parliament was not sponsoring the initiative.
“This is not being sponsored by Parliament. In fact, the main sponsor is from the private sector.
We are leading under my canopy to get this done,” he said.
His comments come amid reports that the proposed Sunderland partnership could be worth approximately £10 million annually, with some reports suggesting that the amount could be financed with public funds.
However, no such figure was announced by the Speaker when he disclosed the negotiations to Parliament.
Mr Bagbin acknowledged the involvement of the Ghana Football Association, the Ministry of Sports and Recreation and the Ministry of Finance, but described their roles as supportive of the initiative.
The reported £10 million figure appears to have originated from an estimate of the potential commercial value of the proposed partnership rather than an officially disclosed contract amount. Former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness suggested in August that a deal of such a scale could be worth around £10 million, but his comments were an estimate and did not confirm an agreed fee.
There have also been recent reports that negotiations have been concluded and that “Visit Ghana” could become Sunderland’s principal shirt sponsor.
However, Sunderland and the Ghanaian authorities have not officially confirmed an annual £10 million fee or any commitment by the Ghanaian government to finance such an amount.
What has been publicly established is that a private-sector-led initiative was pursuing a front-of-shirt partnership with Sunderland to promote Ghana as a tourism destination.
Consequently, claims that the Ghanaian government has committed £10 million a year in public funds to the proposed sponsorship are not supported by the information publicly disclosed by the Speaker.
