National Cathedral: "I Don’t Know" How Much Is The Seed Capital... You Can Ask The Finance Minister - Duncan-Williams

Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, who chairs the Fundraising Committee of the 13-member Board of Trustees for the National Cathedral, has said neither any member of the board nor he knows the amount the government intends using as seed capital for the edifice.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta announced in the 2019 Budget on Thursday, 15 November 2018 in parliament that the state is facilitating the construction of the cathedral by providing “the land, the secretariat and seed money for the preparatory phase”.

Mr Ofori-Atta nonetheless added that: “Mr Speaker, the president is determined that the building of the National Cathedral would not put undue financial burdens on the state.

“He has, therefore, proposed a partnership between the state and the Ghanaian Christian community, both at home and in the Diaspora.

“The formal launch of this national fundraising campaign is slated for December 28, 2018, in Ghana, and February 2019 in the United States.

“This National Cathedral partnership framework operationalises, and, indeed, is a practical expression of the social partnership envisaged to foster the participatory development of the country as our collective goal,” he said.

Archbishop Duncan-Williams, however, told journalists on Monday, 24 December 2018 that he has no idea about how much the seed capital is.

“I don’t know”, he replied to a direct question, adding: “So, you can ask the Minister of Finance. He hasn’t told us yet”.

The Founder of Action Chapel International also said the Board has taken into consideration all the concerns expressed by Ghanaians with regard to the national cathedral.

“As members of the trustees, we are listening, we are assessing, we are looking and we are addressing the issues that are coming up. So, it is not like we are ignoring it. We are listening and we are addressing a lot of issues,” he said.

“We intend to engage the media to bring clarity to a lot of the unanswered questions and to address some of the speculations out there.

“We need to make sense of some of the speculations that are going around,” he added.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cut the sod for the construction of a National Cathedral on 6 March 2017 - the 60th anniversary of Ghana’s independence.

The cathedral is expected to provide space for national events of a religious nature. A National monument, the Cathedral will house chapels and baptistery, a 5000-seat main auditorium expandable to 15,000 for national events and celebrations.

It will include among others, a grand central hall, a music school, and will house Africa’s first-ever Bible Museum and documentation centre.