George Afriyie slams Kurt Okraku over Black Stars budget disclosure

Christopher Sededzi Kwame 11:38 - 20 February 2026

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Former Vice President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), George Afriyie, has criticised GFA President Kurt Okraku over his position on the public disclosure of the Black Stars’ budget.

The controversy forms part of a broader national conversation on transparency in the financing of Ghana’s senior national team.

The debate intensified in February 2025 when President John Dramani Mahama, during his State of the Nation Address, called for an end to secrecy surrounding government expenditure on national teams and directed that such budgets be made public.

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Speaking in an interview on Asaase Radio, Okraku questioned why the Black Stars’ budget had become the focus of public scrutiny.

Okraku said,

I don’t have any problem with making the Black Stars budget public

But why are we not asking every sector of the economy to make their budgets public, and why only Black Stars? Why create confusion where there’s no need for confusion? The GFA is a private entity. We dwell and waste our time on things which are needless.

However, responding in a separate interview on Asempa FM, Afriyie expressed surprise at the GFA president’s comments and defended the call for transparency.

He stated,

I am surprised Kurt Okraku made those remarks

We all know the national teams, the Black Stars, are owned by the government, and if they are to give you money, I don’t see anything wrong with the money being made public. After all, the money is from the taxpayer. I believe that he (Kurt Okraku) was wrong to question the logic behind why the budget should be made public.

Following the President’s directive, Sports Minister Kofi Adams disclosed the financial allocations for each Black Stars match from Matchdays 5 to 10 of the World Cup qualifiers.

The move has since sparked widespread discussion within Ghana’s football fraternity, with stakeholders divided over the scope and necessity of financial transparency in the management of the national team.

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