STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Parliament’s Minority caucus is demanding that President Mahama dismiss or suspend NSA Director-General Yaw Ampofo Ankrah over an alleged World Cup visa facilitation scheme worth about $600,000
- A petition dated September 8, 2026, was filed with the Criminal Investigation Department linking the NSA and an entity called TRIBE FEST to the alleged scheme
- Ampofo Ankrah and NSA staff have reportedly been summoned to the CID for questioning; the Authority denies authorising any visa or money-collection arrangement
- The visa scandal follows an earlier controversy in which Ampofo Ankrah recruited 17 staff without required government clearance, some into roles that do not exist in the NSA’s structure
Ghana’s sports administration has been here before. In 2018, a fake-journalist visa scheme tied to the Commonwealth Games in Australia cost a deputy minister and an NSA Director-General their jobs.
Eight years later, the National Sports Authority is again at the centre of a visa controversy — this time tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and again threatening the job of the man at the top.
A petition dated September 8, 2026, was reportedly filed with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, alleging that the NSA and a private entity identified as TRIBE FEST ran a scheme that collected roughly $623,000 from Ghanaians seeking help with World Cup travel arrangements.
According to reports, some individuals were charged as much as $8,000 each for the service.
The NSA has confirmed it is aware of the petition but says it has not been formally notified of its contents by police.
“The NSA has not been officially notified of the full particulars of the alleged petition and will not speculate on its contents or the persons reportedly named in it,” the Authority said in a statement, while insisting it had not authorised any visa facilitation or money-collection arrangement and pledging cooperation with any lawful investigation.
Director-General Yaw Ampofo Ankrah initially denied knowledge of the arrangement when contacted by JoySports journalist Muftawu Nabila Abdulai, who first broke the story.
Since then, Mr. Ampofo Ankrah and some NSA staff have reportedly been summoned to the CID for questioning.
Parliament Demands Action
The scandal has moved swiftly from newsroom to Parliament. The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, told journalists this week that the arrangement involved a private entity operating with NSA support, and that the sums involved were substantial enough to warrant immediate presidential action.
The Minority caucus has since called on President John Dramani Mahama to dismiss Mr. Ampofo Ankrah outright, or at minimum direct him to step aside while investigations proceed.
“We therefore call on the President to dismiss the Director-General of the National Sports Authority with immediate effect, or, at the very least, require him to step aside pending the conclusion of the investigation,” Assafuah said.
As of this reporting, neither the Presidency nor the Ministry of Sports and Recreation has announced a decision on Mr. Ampofo Ankrah’s status.
Not His First Crisis
The visa allegations arrive less than seven months after Mr. Ampofo Ankrah survived a separate controversy over unauthorised recruitment at the NSA — an episode that first exposed tensions between his office and the Authority’s governing board.
In February 2026, journalist Muftawu Nabila Abdulai reported that the NSA Board had asked Mr. Ampofo Ankrah to rescind the appointments of 17 staff members recruited without clearance from the Public Services Commission or the Finance Ministry, as required for state institutions.
The Board had already pressed for the cancellation once before, setting an initial deadline of February 6 following a retreat in Ada. Sources said it was the second time the Board had made the request.
Some of the new hires, including one filling a Chief Operations Officer role, occupied positions that do not exist in the NSA’s approved organisational structure. Reports at the time indicated certain recruits had been given authority exceeding that of existing Deputy Directors-General, unsettling longer-serving staff.
Sports Minister Kofi Adams eventually convened a meeting on February 23, 2026, to resolve the impasse, after an earlier attempt to meet was delayed because Mr. Ampofo Ankrah was in the United Kingdom and did not return until February 17. At that meeting, Adams formally directed the Director-General to annul the 17 appointments.
Backing Down, Then Standing By Staff
Mr. Ampofo Ankrah initially defended the hires publicly, arguing the recruits had supported Ghana’s push to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. He later conceded, in a formal statement, that the appointments had not followed due process.
A Ministry spokesperson confirmed on local radio station Asempa FM that “about 17 Ghanaians were recruited without following due process, and that error has been established. We have all agreed that it was wrong.”
The affected staff, who the NSA said had gone unpaid for more than 11 months, were directed to reapply through the proper channels.
When some of them staged a demonstration at NSA headquarters over the revocation directive, Mr. Ampofo Ankrah told the protesting group he would “protect” them, blaming “miscommunication” and “a little bit of mischief” for the fallout, and pledging to find a resolution — a response that appeared to sit uneasily beside the Minister’s own directive to cancel the hires.
A Pattern Ghana’s Sports Sector Knows Well
The controversies surrounding Mr. Ampofo Ankrah echo a recurring theme in Ghanaian sports administration: state agencies whose leadership becomes entangled in financial or procedural scandal, often exposed by journalists rather than internal oversight.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games affair, in which a deputy sports minister and an NSA Director-General were both suspended over a visa-related scandal involving fake journalists, remains the sector’s most infamous precedent.
Ghana’s sports ministry has also weathered earlier scandals, including allegations against a former Youth and Sports Minister and his deputy following a state commission of inquiry, both of whom were subsequently dismissed.
Whether Mr. Ampofo Ankrah’s tenure follows that precedent now rests on the outcome of the CID investigation and on a decision the Presidency has yet to make public.
This article was edited with AI and reviewed by human editors
