Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has emphasized the detrimental impact of sports betting on the nation’s youth.
Sports Betting has become a widespread phenomenon, fueled by factors such as high unemployment rate and enticing celebrity endorsements, promising attractive wins. Unfortunately, this surge in betting has led to severe addiction issues, with many Ghanaians jeopardizing their hard-earned income.
At a public lecture organized by Baraka Policy, Dr. Adutwum, urged the youth to rather focus on their studies as that has far reaching benefits than sports betting.
The BPI Annual Public Lectures which started in 2015 is purposively designed to provoke reflections on critical issues, particularly on education, for national development.
Since its inception, a lot of issues critical to social development and wellbeing of the citizenry have been the subjects of discussion at the lectures. The focus of this year’s lecture was Towards Achieving the SDGs on Education-Tackling Socio-Economic Forces Against Progress in Ghana.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum highlighted the formidable challenges of curbing sports betting, emphasizing the importance of education over gambling activities.
He added that betting has a way of destroying the individual. He reiterated the importance of education and advised students to stay away from betting as it has a negative impact on their education.
Educationist and Director of the Gate Institute, Anis Haffar, called on all districts assemblies, police, and stakeholders to come on board and help combat sports betting amongst the youth. He further asked parents to take the responsibility of keeping their children in check.
The lectures brought together key stakeholders in national development including experts, government officials, civil society groups, the media and others.
