{"id":13138,"date":"2025-11-19T09:47:50","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T12:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=13138"},"modified":"2026-04-19T11:40:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T14:40:45","slug":"betting-revenue-to-fund-ghanas-national-sports-programs-in-early-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/betting-revenue-to-fund-ghanas-national-sports-programs-in-early-2026","title":{"rendered":"Betting revenue to fund Ghana\u2019s National Sports programs in early 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The National Sports Fund will use revenue from sports betting and lotteries to support athletes, infrastructure and talent development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Ghana.- Ghana<\/strong> will channel a portion of sports betting<\/strong> and lottery revenue<\/strong> into a National Sports Fund <\/strong>starting in early 2026, aiming to end persistent underfunding<\/strong> and directly link gaming activity to the development of athletes<\/strong> and sports infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sports Fund Bill, currently in the final stages<\/strong> before Parliament, identifies 14 potential revenue streams <\/strong>to support athletes, infrastructure<\/strong> and competitions. These include contributions<\/strong> from sports betting operators<\/strong>, sports lotteries, corporate sponsorships, athlete transfer fees, gate receipts from events, athlete certification fees, commercial sports vendor income, parliamentary allocations, international grants and donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among these, levies and contributions<\/strong> from sports betting operators will play a pivotal role, ensuring that revenue from Ghana\u2019s rapidly growing<\/strong> betting market, dominated by betPawa, SportyBet and others, directly benefits the nation\u2019s athletes and sporting programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fund taps betting revenue, no new taxes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Minister for Government Communications Felix Kwakye\u202fOfosu<\/strong> emphasised that the Fund will not introduce any new tax or levy on citizens. He said that a \u201cproposed bill<\/strong> was sent to Cabinet and approved for the establishment of a Sports Development Fund,\u201d according to Ghanamma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fund will rely on existing revenue streams<\/strong> from Ghana\u2019s \u201crapidly expanding<\/strong>\u201d betting and gaming market, including sports lotteries, sponsorships and athlete transfers, providing a sustainable mechanism to support athletes, competitions and sports infrastructure while minimising financial burdens on the public<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ofosu added that the Fund will be financed \u201cthrough proceeds<\/strong> from betting companies, sports lotteries and the transfer of athletes both within Ghana and abroad\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move comes after the 10 per cent<\/strong> betting winnings tax was abolished<\/strong> in April 2025, a change that opens the way for gaming revenue to be channelled into sports development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If approved by Parliament, the National Sports Fund will make Ghana one of the first African countries<\/strong> to explicitly link gambling revenues to national sports development, signalling a new model<\/strong> for harnessing the gaming sector for social and economic benefit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Senegal\u2019s National Lottery officially rolls out new 20\u202fper cent tax on player winnings<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Sports Fund will use revenue from sports betting and lotteries to support athletes, infrastructure and talent development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2809,"featured_media":13150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Ghana is establishing a National Sports Fund, effective early 2026, to channel a portion of sports betting and lottery revenues towards athlete development and sports infrastructure. This initiative, outlined in the Sports Fund Bill, aims to provide sustainable funding without new taxes, leveraging the rapidly expanding domestic iGaming market and positioning Ghana as a pioneer in linking gambling revenues to national sports development.","focusai_entities":"National Sports Fund, Parliament, betPawa, SportyBet, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, Cabinet, National Lottery","focusai_location":"Ghana, Senegal","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.85), operator_casino (0.95), investor_analyst (0.93), supplier_vendor (0.75), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Operator GGR?","query":"How will the National Sports Fund's revenue streams, particularly from sports betting and lotteries, specifically impact the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) for licensed operators in Ghana?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent for Africa?","query":"Given Ghana's explicit link between gambling revenues and national sports development, what are the implications for regulatory frameworks and governance models across other emerging iGaming markets in Africa?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60020,60012],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-13138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legislation-news","category-west-africa","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2809"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13138"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13168,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13138\/revisions\/13168"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}