Ghana’s Black Stars are gearing up for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which kicks off June 11, and the squad preview centers on one name: Antoine Semenyo. The 20-year-old midfielder, who recently moved to Manchester City, has drawn comparisons to Michael Essien.
Mara’s bet on the Black Stars
The Ghana Football Association partnered with Mara, a Pan-African digital finance ecosystem, as an official sponsor of the national team. The deal was initially unveiled ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup with a valuation of approximately $1 million.
Mara isn’t a betting platform or a sportswear brand. It’s a blockchain-native company focused on digital finance across Africa. That makes it an outlier in Ghana’s commercial sponsorship landscape, where betting platforms and telecom giants typically dominate the jersey real estate.
What this means for African digital finance
