The Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral of Ghana issued a press release on January 23, 2023, addressing concerns raised by the public about the construction of the National Cathedral in the midst of Ghana’s current economic challenges.
The project, which evolved as a vision of the President of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is being developed in partnership between the state and the Ghanaian Christian community and includes a Cathedral, Bible Museum and Biblical Gardens of Africa.
The Board of Trustees has emphasized that the National Cathedral is not only to serve as an interdenominational facility for National Prayer and Worship, Presidential Inaugural Services, State Funerals, and National Thanksgiving Services but also to be an economic engine that will attract large numbers of tourists and researchers to Ghana annually to boost the economy.
The Board also added additional elements to the project including a Bible Museum, a Biblical Garden and an economic engine consisting of 10 revenue streams.
However, the Board of Trustees has expressed regret that the construction work on the project has come to a standstill due to inadequate funding. They attributed the inadequate funding to the general misunderstanding that it is the state that is fully funding the construction of the National Cathedral and the general impression that the project is not being executed with the expected high Christian standards of integrity, transparency, and accountability.
In response to these developments, the Board of Trustees has decided to engage Deloitte, the auditors when the National Cathedral was registered, to commence the normal statutory audit.
The Board has also submitted all relevant documentation on the project to Parliament in December 2022 and will cooperate fully with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) in its investigation into the operations of the National Cathedral project.
The Board of Trustees expressed hope that once these issues are satisfactorily dealt with, public interest and confidence in the project will be restored and rekindled to enable the citizenry to contribute generously to complete the Cathedral. They urged Ghanaians to support the project, which is aimed at bringing glory to God and boosting the economy of the country.
