The Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) has called for the expedited completion of the forensic audit into the stalled National Cathedral project, while announcing the establishment of a technical committee tasked with developing a practical funding model and making recommendations on the project’s location and other key outstanding issues.
Speaking to journalists after a closed-door meeting with the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Chairman of the Christian Council of Ghana, Reverend Enoch Nii Narh Thompson, said the committee’s recommendations would ultimately be presented to President John Dramani Mahama to guide the next steps on the long-delayed national project.
According to Rev. Thompson, the newly established committee comprises representatives drawn from various Christian groupings across the country, tasked specifically with exploring a way forward for the National Cathedral project, which has remained stalled amid persistent funding and construction challenges since its inception.
He disclosed that the committee has been given a one-month deadline to complete its work, focusing specifically on the practical intervention required around funding arrangements, questions over the project’s location, and other pertinent matters affecting its progress.
“Under this council, within a month, we will discuss issues relating to the practical intervention of funding, location and other things pertinent to the National Cathedral,”
Chairman of the Christian Council of Ghana, Reverend Enoch Nii Narh Thompson
Recommendations Expected to Reach the President
Rev. Thompson confirmed that once the committee concludes its deliberations, its recommendations would be presented directly to President Mahama, with the expectation that the necessary decisions on the project’s future would follow shortly after.
“So, we will within the month present the recommendations and expect the necessary decisions to be taken,”
Reverend Enoch Nii Narh Thompson
Beyond the establishment of the technical committee, the Christian Council of Ghana used the engagement to renew its call for the swift completion of the ongoing forensic audit into the National Cathedral project.
According to the Council, the findings of this audit remain essential, as they would enable Christian leaders to properly assess the current state of the project and determine the most appropriate next steps going forward.
This call for urgency around the audit suggests that the Council views financial transparency as a necessary precondition for any meaningful progress on the project, rather than a separate or secondary concern to be addressed later in the process.
Background: A Project Beset By Delays
The National Cathedral project was first announced in 2017 by then-President Nana Akufo-Addo, conceived as a national Christian worship and heritage centre intended to serve as a landmark religious and cultural institution for the country.
The project was officially commissioned in 2018, with formal groundbreaking ceremonies held the following year in 2019.
Since then, however, the project has faced significant funding and construction challenges, leaving the cathedral structure incomplete years after its initial groundbreaking. These persistent delays have triggered sustained public and political pressure for greater clarity regarding how the project has been financed to date, and what its realistic prospects for completion might be going forward.
Christian Leadership Steps in to Chart A Path Forward
The establishment of the technical committee by the Christian Council of Ghana reflects a deliberate effort by Christian leadership to take a more direct, coordinated role in determining the future of the project, rather than leaving its fate solely in the hands of government or the original project administrators.
By bringing together representatives from various Christian groupings, the Council appears to be positioning itself as a unifying body capable of building consensus among different denominations on how best to proceed with a project that, despite its religious character, has increasingly become entangled in questions of public accountability and fiscal transparency.
With the technical committee now given a firm one-month timeline to complete its work, attention will likely turn to how quickly the forensic audit findings become available, and whether these findings align with, or complicate, the committee’s eventual recommendations on funding and location.
The involvement of President Mahama as the ultimate recipient of the committee’s recommendations suggests that any final decision on the National Cathedral’s future will require both religious and political buy-in, given the project’s complex history spanning multiple government administrations and years of unresolved public scrutiny.
READ MORE: Scrapping Categorisation Cannot Solve Placement Problems — Eduwatch Director
