NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY (NPP) NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTORATE

THE WORLD CUP VISA SCANDAL: GHANA'S NAME HAS BEEN SOLD AT FOREIGN EMBASSIES, AND GOVERNMENT IS TREATING IT AS AN ADMINISTRATIVE HICCUP

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, good morning, and thank you for honoring our invitation at such short notice.

We have called you here because a matter of grave national importance is being handled by the Mahama-led NDC government with a casualness that should alarm every Ghanaian. We speak of the World Cup visa scandal involving the National Sports Authority (NSA), the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), the Ministry of Sports and Recreation, and a private entity called TRIBE Culture Fest.

On Wednesday, 7th October 2026, the Minority in Parliament, through the Ranking Member on the Youth and Sports Committee, Hon. Vincent Ekow Assafuah, laid before this nation a 49-page documented account of how the names, letterheads and credibility of Ghanaian public institutions were allegedly used to present non-staff as public officers to the Embassies of the United States and Canada. The New Patriotic Party fully endorses that statement and its demands.

The matter has since moved beyond parliamentary scrutiny. As of the morning of 15th October 2026, Hon. Vincent Ekow Assafuah, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Youth and Sports Committee who broke the story, had formally petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and the Presidency, calling for accountability and the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to unravel the full circumstances surrounding the scandal. These steps reflect the gravity of the allegations and the need for an independent process that will establish the facts, identify all persons implicated and ensure that no one is shielded from accountability.

Yet, rather than respond to the substance of the allegations with the urgency and transparency they demand, the Ministry of Sports and Recreation has embarked on a public relations offensive to defend the Minister, while the Ghana Tourism Authority has issued blanket denials. The government, meanwhile, appears content to let the suspension of one Director-General serve as the full stop on a matter that has only just begun.

The NPP says, clearly and without equivocation: this is not over, it cannot be allowed to be over, and the Ghanaian people will not accept a cover-up dressed as cooperation.

WHAT IS NOW ON THE PUBLIC RECORD

Let us remind Ghanaians of what the documents placed before the nation show. These are not rumours. They are letters, emails, Memoranda of Understanding and lists bearing the names and signatures of public officers.

• A 2nd June 2025 MOU between the NSA and TRIBE Culture Fest gave the private company exclusive operational access to NSA facilities. This directly contradicts the Minister's earlier explanation that TRIBE was simply renting space like any other private entity.
• A 19th January 2026 supplementary arrangement under which the NSA agreed to pay TRIBE US$3,000 per person for US visa processing and US$2,000 for Canada, expressly for "NSA PERSONNEL", payable whether or not a visa was granted.
• A 28th January 2026 email from the NSA's Chief Operating Officer to the US Embassy introducing 22 "NSA staff", among them a "Board Secretary" when the NSA had no such officer serving, and "Procurement Officers" who are not the Authority's procurement officers.
• On 18th March 2026, the Fraud Prevention Unit of the US Embassy flagged four applicants presented in positions that do not exist at the NSA and demanded proof of employment. The NSA responded the same day with a letter confirming their appointments.
• On 28th May 2026, the Ministry of Sports and Recreation itself wrote to the US Embassy under the heading "Request for Ministerial Support and Visa Facilitation Consideration for NSA Volunteers/Event Coordinators", transmitting a list of about 90 names.
• On 8th June 2026, after the Canadian Embassy demanded a fresh, truthful list of applicants' employment and roles, the NSA Director-General submitted 102 names. Only 15 have been verified as NSA personnel. 87 were not. Portfolios such as "Chaplain" and "Head of Security" were allegedly invented for them.
• Applicants allegedly paid between US$8,000 and US$14,000 each, against the US$3,000 contract rate, with one person allegedly making a part-payment of nearly US$20,000. Media reports put the total allegedly collected at over US$600,000. This figure has been confirmed by the Minister for Sports and recreation.
• Some of those who travelled under this arrangement, reportedly including persons close to the NSA leadership and the Ministry, have not returned to Ghana.

This is the record. It is detailed, dated and verifiable. And it is against this record that the government's response must be judged.

THE MINISTRY'S DEFENCE DOES NOT HOLD

The Ministry's response, delivered not by the Minister himself but through his aide, is a defence of one man rather than an account to the nation. We take its claims one after the other.

1. "Forwarding the list was only a technical review, not an endorsement."

The Ministry's own letter of 28th May was titled "Request for Ministerial Support and Visa Facilitation Consideration." In diplomatic practice, when a sovereign Ministry writes to a foreign Embassy requesting "ministerial support" for named individuals, that is an endorsement. It is the very reason such letters are sought. No Embassy reads a ministerial letterhead as a neutral courier slip.

2. "Genuine NSA and Ministry staff were processed through an entirely separate diplomatic channel."

This is the most damaging admission of all, and Ghanaians must not miss it. If the genuine staff went through a separate channel, then the Ministry is telling us that the 90 names it forwarded under its letterhead were not genuine staff. So who were they? Why did a Ministry of the Republic lend its name to a list of persons it now admits were not its officers? What did those persons pay, and to whom?

3. "The NSA letter came in May, not March."

On the Ministry's own account, the request was dated 19th May, received on 25th May and forwarded on 28th May. That is just three days. What due diligence did the Ministry conduct on 90 names in three days? Did anyone ask for appointment letters, payroll records or SSNIT numbers? By that date, the US Embassy's Fraud Prevention Unit had already, on 18th March, flagged false NSA designations. A Ministry exercising proper oversight over its agency should have known. If it did not know, that is a failure of supervision. If it knew and still forwarded the list, that is worse.

4. "There is no evidence the Minister benefited financially."

This is the wrong test, and the Ministry knows it. Abuse of office, causing misrepresentation to foreign governments, and negligent supervision of an agency do not require that a Minister pocketed money. Moreover, whether the Minister benefited is a question for investigators to establish, not for his own aide to pronounce on at a press conference.

5. "The Minister recommended that the NSA Director-General step aside for investigations."

Then the Minister has already accepted the principle. A public officer whose institution is under investigation should step aside so that the investigation is not compromised. That principle cannot apply to the Director-General and stop at the Minister's door, especially when it was the Minister's own Ministry that wrote to the US Embassy.

6. "The Minister led a public anti-fraud campaign."

The irony is painful. While Ghanaians were being warned not to pay unverified third parties for World Cup visas, lists bearing the names of public institutions under the Minister's supervision were allegedly the vehicle through which people paid up to US$14,000 each.

The GTA's selective denial

The Ghana Tourism Authority, in its statement of 9th October, denied collecting money and argued that "media" includes bloggers and influencers. Yet the GTA is silent on the questions that matter: its arrangement with TRIBE Culture Fest, the public funds it committed, the visa slots allocated to it, the outcome of the US Embassy's scrutiny that found only two recognisable media practitioners on a list of 50, and the petition reportedly written by its own Directors. A denial that avoids every specific question is not an answer.

WHY THIS IS A NATIONAL SCANDAL, NOT A SPORTS STORY

The government wants Ghanaians to see this as an internal NSA matter that the CID will sort out in its own time. We reject that framing. Four things make this one of the most serious governance breaches of this administration.

First, the integrity of the Ghanaian State before foreign governments has been compromised. Official letterheads, signatures and institutional designations were allegedly used to tell the United States and Canada that private individuals were public officers. When a foreign Embassy's Fraud Prevention Unit has to ask a Ghanaian Ministry and Authority whether their own lists are true, our credibility as a nation has been put on trial.

Second, ordinary Ghanaians will pay the price. Every student seeking a study visa, every trader, every family member travelling for a wedding or a funeral, every genuine athlete and official, now applies against the backdrop of a scandal in which Ghanaian state institutions were allegedly used to mislead consular officers. Persons who travelled under this arrangement and have reportedly not returned add to that burden. The government must tell Ghanaians what engagement it has had with the US and Canadian missions to protect the reputation of the Ghanaian passport.

Third, public institutions were allegedly turned into a marketplace. If applicants paid up to US$14,000 each for a process contracted at US$3,000, then someone ran a business inside the State. Over US$600,000 is reported to have changed hands. That money must be traced to the last cedi and the last dollar.

Fourth, the chain runs upward. The documents trace a line from TRIBE Culture Fest, through the NSA's Chief Operating Officer and Director-General, through the GTA, and up to the Ministry's own correspondence with the US Embassy. Suspending the person at one link of the chain does not explain the chain.

A GOVERNMENT THAT PREACHED ACCOUNTABILITY IS NOW PRACTISING DAMAGE CONTROL

This is a government that came to office promising to "Reset Ghana" and that launched Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL), assuring Ghanaians that there would be no sacred cows. Yet look at how this matter has been handled.

• Action came only after public pressure. The President acted on the NSA Director-General on 1st October 2026, after the CID had been petitioned on 8th September and after the Minority demanded his removal. Accountability that waits to be forced is not leadership.
• Even that action is unclear. Some official accounts say Mr Ampofo Ankrah was dismissed; others say he was suspended pending investigation. Which is it? Ghanaians deserve a clear statement from the Presidency.
• The Minister is investigating himself by press conference. Rather than step aside or appear before Parliament, the Minister has sent his aide to declare him innocent. The ministry under scrutiny cannot also be the ministry issuing verdicts.
• The investigation has been left at CID level alone. A matter involving alleged misrepresentation to foreign governments, the alleged collection of over US$600,000 and possible abuse of office by public officers is squarely within the remit of the Office of the Special Prosecutor and the Economic and Organised Crime Office. Neither has been publicly brought in.
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is silent. Ghana's diplomatic relationships are implicated, yet there has been no word on what the government has said to the United States and Canadian missions.
• The GTA leadership remains untouched. The same government that removed the NSA boss has offered no explanation for why the GTA leadership, named in the same documents, continues in office.

When the NPP was in government, this same NDC demanded resignations on far less. Ghanaians will measure this administration by the standard it set for others.

OUR DEMANDS

The New Patriotic Party therefore demands the following:

• The Minister for Sports and Recreation, Hon. Kofi Iddie Adams, must step aside or be relieved of his post immediately, applying to himself the very principle he says he recommended for the NSA Director-General.
• The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Authority must likewise step aside pending a full investigation of the GTA's role.
• The Office of the Special Prosecutor and EOCO must be formally brought into the investigation, alongside the CID, with a clear mandate to trace every payment made by applicants, through every account and intermediary.
• The Presidency must clarify whether Mr Yaw Ampofo Ankrah was dismissed or suspended, and state what action has been taken against the other NSA officials named in the correspondence.
• Parliament must summon the Minister for Sports and Recreation and the CEO of the GTA to answer questions on the floor of the House, and the Youth and Sports Committee must be allowed to conduct a public inquiry.
• The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must brief the nation on the government's engagement with the US and Canadian missions and on steps taken to protect Ghanaian travellers from the fallout.
• All the documents must be published: the NSA-TRIBE MOU, the supplementary arrangement, the GTA-TRIBE agreement, every list submitted to both Embassies, and the Ministry's letter of 28th May 2026.
• Applicants who paid must be protected and refunded. Many were ordinary Ghanaians who trusted the name of a public institution. They should be invited to come forward without fear, and any money recovered returned to them.
• A clear timeline for the investigation must be announced, with a public report at its conclusion. Investigations without deadlines are where accountability goes to die.

QUESTIONS GOVERNMENT MUST ANSWER

• If genuine staff went through a separate channel, who were the 90 people the Ministry forwarded, and who compiled their names?
• What checks did the Ministry carry out in the three days between receiving the NSA request and writing to the US Embassy?
• Who prepared the list of 102 names sent to the Canadian Embassy, and who created portfolios such as "Chaplain" and "Head of Security"?
• How much money was collected, into whose accounts, and how much has been recovered so far?
• How many persons who travelled under these arrangements have not returned, and who sponsored their travel?
• Why has the GTA not addressed its agreement with TRIBE Culture Fest, the public funds committed, or the petition by its own Directors?

Ladies and gentlemen, the visa scandal does not stand alone. It follows the same pattern as the World Cup ticket racket that Ghanaians have not forgotten. By the Sports Minister’s own account to Parliament, the State spent about US$1.26 million of taxpayers’ money on 2,922 match tickets, meant in part for Ghanaian students and genuine supporters. Yet we have evidence that some of those tickets, already paid for by the Ghanaian taxpayer, were sold back to those same students and supporters. This was allegedly done by officials of this government working with social media influencers aligned to the NDC. Tickets that were paid for were sold a second time. Public money bought them, and private pockets were allegedly filled. In the coming days, we will put out the full details: who received the tickets, who sold them, at what price, and through whose hands the money passed. The people who hold state power must be made to answer for how this was done.”

CONCLUSION

Ladies and gentlemen, we do not seek to convict anyone at a press conference. Every person named is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and we expect due process to be followed. But due process must begin, it must be independent, and it must reach every level of the chain, including the Minister.

The removal of one Director-General is not accountability. It is a single step that the government is trying to turn into a destination. The NPP will not allow this matter to be swept under the carpet. We will keep the questions before the Ghanaian people, in Parliament, in the media and in every constituency, until full answers are given and every person found culpable is sanctioned or prosecuted without fear or favour.

Ghana's name is not for sale. Not at the US Embassy, not at the Canadian High Commission, and not anywhere else.

Thank you.

Signed

Dennis Miracles Aboagye

National Communications Director New Patriotic Party (NPP)

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