Ghana’s proposed “Visit Ghana” partnership with Sunderland AFC could become more than a football sponsorship if it succeeds in converting Premier League exposure into tourist arrivals, foreign exchange and investment interest.
Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin announced in August that a private sector-led initiative was pursuing a deal to place the Visit Ghana brand on the front of Sunderland’s shirts during the 2026/27 English Premier League season. He said Parliament was not financing the initiative, while the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Sports and Recreation and Ghana Football Association had been supportive.
“We are entering a formal engagement with them to put Visit Ghana on their jerseys and all paraphernalia,” Bagbin said, adding that discussions had advanced significantly.
The commercial significance of the initiative lies in the size of the audience Ghana would be attempting to reach. The Premier League is broadcast across 189 countries and has an estimated 1.9 billion followers globally, according to the league’s 2024/25 annual report. That gives the Visit Ghana brand access to an international audience that conventional tourism advertising campaigns would struggle to reach at comparable scale.
Tourism is becoming a stronger contributor to Ghana’s economy and a growing source of foreign exchange, making the potential benefits of the Sunderland partnership particularly significant. Ghana welcomed 1,306,962 international tourists in 2025, a 1.4% increase from 1,288,804 arrivals in 2024, according to the Ghana Tourism Authority. The visitors generated an estimated US$4.34 billion in international tourism receipts, underlining the sector’s role as a source of foreign exchange and economic activity.
A successful international branding campaign could therefore create benefits across airlines, hotels, restaurants, transport operators, tour companies, event organisers, retailers and small businesses. Unlike a traditional export promotion campaign, tourism brings foreign consumers directly into the domestic economy, allowing spending to spread through multiple sectors.
The proposed deal could also strengthen Ghana’s broader investment narrative. Premier League broadcasts would repeatedly place the country before audiences in Europe, North America, Asia and Africa, creating opportunities to link the Visit Ghana brand with business tourism, conferences, cultural events and diaspora travel.
That conversion will be crucial. Global visibility does not automatically translate into visitor spending. The real economic value of the sponsorship will depend on how effectively Ghana uses the exposure to attract travellers and direct them towards the country’s tourism offerings, airlines, hotels, festivals and investment opportunities.
Reports this week have put the value of the proposed front-of-shirt partnership at about £10 million annually. While Sunderland has not yet formally announced the deal, the Visit Ghana branding is expected to be unveiled ahead of Sunderland’s Premier League meeting with Arsenal next week.
The biggest opportunity may be the role of the private sector. With businesses helping to fund and promote the campaign, Ghana can limit the cost to public finances while giving companies in tourism, hospitality, aviation and financial services a chance to benefit from the international exposure.
The partnership gives Ghana a global platform to put its tourism industry in front of millions of football fans. The bigger opportunity is to turn that exposure into more tourists, more spending in the local economy and more business for companies across the tourism and hospitality sector.
