Kumasi stadium fee for Rapperholic reported at ₵400,000; National Sports Authority has not confirmed it

Sarkodie headlined Rapperholic '26 at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on Saturday, 24 October. The show ended at about 6:30 on Sunday morning, with the rapper kneeling on stage to thank the city, 3News and AtinkaOnline reported.

A week later, the talk in Kumasi is about what the stadium cost.

The ₵400,000 figure

On Friday, 30 October, Ebenezer Donkoh, the YFM presenter known as NY DJ, told YFM Kumasi's Entertainment Review: "In fact, you had to pay about 400,000 Ghana cedis to use this." He added: "If Rapperholic doesn't come to Kumasi again, blame the authorities who manage the Kumasi sports stadium." ModernGhana reported his comments the same day.

The figure comes from this one report. Other websites that carried it repeated his account. The National Sports Authority (NSA), which runs the stadium, had not confirmed or denied it when QMS News checked on the morning of 1 November.

What Sarkodie wrote

On Saturday morning, 31 October, Sarkodie shared the YFM clip on his story, according to a screenshot posted by YFM Kumasi on X and a screen recording posted by the X user @korti_kesie1.

He did not write the figure himself. He wrote that his team "paid almost 3 times what we paid for just last year this year", and pleaded with the authorities "to be abit reasonable with these fees to be able to keep this economic boosting event in Kumasi". Last year's fee has not been published.

The figure is disputed

Isaac Justice Bediako, who describes himself on X as a GHOne TV and Starr FM regional correspondent in the Ashanti Region, wrote on 31 October: "Fact is that @Sarkodie didn't pay 400,000 cedis." He asked anyone who disputes his post to show receipts of the ₵400,000.

QMS News could not find a public record of how long the stadium was hired for, or who signed the hire.

What the authority has said it charges

The Baba Yara Sports Stadium is state property, managed by the National Sports Authority under the Ministry of Sports and Recreation, led by Kofi Iddie Adams, in President John Dramani Mahama's NDC government. Prof. Emmanuel Osei Sarpong has been acting Director-General of the NSA since 1 October 2026, Graphic Online and GNA reported.

The authority's last published rate is from December 2023. Its then Director-General, Prof. Peter Twumasi, said in a statement reported by Graphic Online and Citi Newsroom that the daily usage charge for the Accra Sports Stadium was ₵110,000, and the same for the Kumasi, Cape Coast and Tamale stadia, under the 2021 Fees and Charges regulations.

In the same statement, the NSA said electricity bills for the Accra Sports Stadium alone were about ₵80,000 a month, and that football clubs pay 10% of gate proceeds, which on most match days comes to less than ₵1,000.

In February 2024, Prof. Twumasi told Parliament's Public Accounts Committee that an estimated ₵70,000 was paid for Stonebwoy's December 2023 concert at the Accra Sports Stadium, GBC and 3News reported. Stonebwoy's manager said the team paid more than that, according to Graphic Online and MyJoyOnline.

The state of the stadium

In September 2024, after Ghana played Angola there, CAF withdrew its approval of the Baba Yara Sports Stadium over an unsuitable playing field, the Ghana Football Association and Graphic Online reported. In August 2026, the NSA's Ashanti public relations officer told the Ghanaian Times the authority was working to regain CAF approval.

When CAF turned the stadium down in 2022, its reasons included a lack of modern electronic access controls, MyJoyOnline reported in April 2022. Adomonline reported on 30 October 2026 that a CAF inspection in January 2026 classed Baba Yara as the only non-compliant venue in Ghana's bid for the U20 AFCON, noting no automated access control and no electronic spectator counting.

The 2022 rejection and the 2024 withdrawal both came under President Nana Akufo-Addo's NPP government.

3News and AtinkaOnline reported that more than 80,000 people attended Rapperholic '26. The stadium's listed capacity is about 40,500.

In everyday money

Ghana's daily minimum wage for 2026 is ₵21.77. At that rate, ₵400,000 is 18,374 days of work, about 50 years.

What comes next

Sarkodie has said he wants to grow Rapperholic into a weeklong festival in Kumasi, NYDJ Live reported on 26 October. On 31 October he wrote on X that from Monday, 2 November, he will visit Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria, "not to perform but just visit".