Graphic Communications Group, publishers of five of the nation?s most widely read newspapers, has contributed ?250m in advertising space to support the Black Stars World Cup qualifying campaign.

The contribution formed part of the total amount of ?756m realised at a special fund-raising dinner held at the Alisa Hotel in Accra last Friday to solicit funds for the Black Stars.

Other corporate bodies and financial institutions that contributed to the fund were Mechanical Lloyd(?250m), Ecobank(?25m), Merchant Bank(?20m), Bamson Company Limited(?20m) and first African Group(?20m). Recounting the resounding successes of the Stars, the acting Chairman of the Ghana Football Association, Mr Kwasi Nyantakyi, said it was due to the sound management practices put in place by football administrators in the country.

He said that the old generation of soccer-loving Ghanaians would attest to the many fruitless battles the nation had fought to secure a slot at the world?s biggest soccer event.

He praised Gold Fields and Guinness Ghana Limited for blazing the trail by providing ?27bn and 10bn respectively to support the Stars in their World Cup qualifying campaign.

The special Guest of Honour, Ms. Elizabeth Ohene, said that some people could not believe that Ghana had never qualified for the World Cup, although she had been a force to reckon with on the continent. ?Unless we move to the World Cup, we will have more behind us than in front of us? she added.

Ms Ohene who is the Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, commended RICS Consult and EXP Momentum Ghana for organising such a programme to solicit funds in aid of the Stars and pledged the government?s unflinching support to that noble cause.

She noted that there was no point in sending people to the battlefield without equipping them to deliver.

She, therefore, called on corporate entities, soccer-loving Ghanaians and benevolent groups to contribute generously to the Stars? fund to enable them to acquire the necessary logistics to enhance their preparations for the upcoming Cup of Nations and the World Cup.

The Chief of the Essikado Traditional area, Nana Kobina Nketiah V, who chaired the function, said as it was said that the independence of Ghana is meaningless, so has the World Cup been since Ghana had not been part.