Vincent Assafuah wants the Auditor-General to account for every cedi raised in Ghana's two World Cup raffles and compensate fans who paid but never travelled.
Ghana's World Cup raffle saga has landed in Parliament. Vincent Ekow Assafuah, the Ranking Member of the Youth and Sports Committee, is calling on the Auditor-General to open a special audit into the two raffles the government organised, citing concerns over how money from participants was handled.
Speaking to journalists in Parliament on Thursday, November 5, the Old Tafo MP demanded a full account of the funds collected, the identities of the winners and the prizes that were promised. He insisted that anyone who paid to enter but could not make the trip must be compensated.
Assafuah's sharpest questions concern the first raffle, which he says was cancelled without refunds before a second round was launched. He pointed to a hypothetical street hawker who could have spent as much as GH¢10,000 by buying multiple GH¢10 entries, only to see the exercise scrapped with no money returned.
He also wants the government to say whether first-raffle participants were refunded, how many winners actually travelled to the United States or Canada, and what arrangements were made for those who could not secure visas. Beyond that, he is pressing for transparency on the financing of the advertised prizes and the contract with the raffle operator.
For Ghanaian fans dreaming of watching the Black Stars on the biggest stage, the call for accountability adds pressure on the government to explain exactly where the money went.
