On the Occasion of the 2016 MTN-SWAG
Awards Night, Which marks the 41st in the Award’s history,I, on the behalf of his Excellency the president John Dramani Mahama and the Government of Ghana,the Ministry of Youth and Sports,the Sporting fraternity and on my own behalf,wish to first congratulate the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG),the patrons, Executives and the entire Membership,on your hard work that has brought the award this far.

Since the institution of this award in 1974,the Sports Writers Association of Ghana  (SWAG) has ensured that this annual Event has progressively lived up to expectation for which reason there has never been any controversy with the results of the awards.

It is therefore important that we applaud and appreciate all the various Executives both past and present whose vision, toil and dedicated to duty has brought the Association this far. I know it has not been easy especially for an association made up of members that can be very critical.

I wish at this point to also acknowledge the efforts of others who have equally made great contributions to the development of our Sports but are not alive today to witness this beautiful moment; time and space would not allow us to mention the names of all our dedicated Sports men, women  and administrators who have Sacrifice for the development of Sports in the country. We Salute all of them.

SWAG as an association, has always kept its house in order and I commend You sincerely for this. I have no doubt in my mind that with this zeal and commitment it would break new frontiers as it keeps faith with the people.

Sports as an Emerging industry,holds a lot of promise for our people especially the Youth  in the area of self development and job creation but requires a lot of funding.

Government alone cannot shoulder the responsibility of Sports funding for which reason my Ministry has consistently been building Bridges towards public private partnership and corporate sponsorship.

I wish to use this opportunity to urge individuals and corporate bodies to consider Sports funding as a very rewarding venture worth investing in.

Even though MTN is doing a lot of Sports promotion as part of their corporate social responsibility,I wish to encourage them to do more.

My Ministry will always maintain an opening door policy towards the Sports fraternity and for this reason,I wish for a regular and more fruitful collaboration with patrons and Executives of SWAG to enable as work together and take Sports to much higher level in the country. As stakeholders . We are all fighting for a common cause and there is no reason us to fail.

As we gather to celebrate and reward Sports men and women as well as officials in the Sports fraternity who have excelled, Let me congratulate the organizers, winners and the sponsors of the 2016 MTN-SWAG Awards . We at the Ministry of Youth and Sports have every hope that this programme will live up to the highest expectation. God bless you all and bless our homeland,Ghana. AYEKOO TO ALL!!!!!!!