Asuma Banda: I would Have Taken Over But. . .

Business tycoon, Alhaji Asuma Banda, surfaced at the inauguration of the new executives of the National Chapters Committee (NCC) of Accra Hearts of Oak last Saturday amid hope from the club fraternity that he could provide an answer to their fragile financial base.

But the hope remained just that and perhaps a disappointment to delegates from across the nation representing the various Chapters when he declared that, "Unfortunately, I don't understand football too well, otherwise I would have taken over the club from you".

Informed by his soft spot for the club, the Chapters roped him into their programme on Saturday, perhaps to provide him the launch pad into mainstream club management. But his remaks at the function may have dealt adequately with the speculations.

Alhaji Banda has been successful in the transport business where he presides over sea and air transport concerns, and played up his strength in the industry when he stated that "if Hearts were a transport system, I would have taken it and turned it over into a big profitable organisation".

Presiding over the function as chairman, Alhaji Banda expressed his disappointment at the failure of the club to make profit in spite of what he called rich human and material resources at their disposal.

He blamed the club's hierarchy for their lack of vision in investing into profitable ventures that could improve the financial standing of the club."Hearts have a great potential to become self reliant and financially adequate if resources are well managed," he said.

But appalled by the lack of this, he charged the management to register the club on the Ghana Stock Exchange within the next five years, as one major step towards sound financial management.