National Cathedral: Board of Trustees develops fundraising strategy

The Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral of Ghana says besides the State financing, a fundraising strategy has been developed.

The Board said it was to operationalize the State-Church partnership envisaged by the President for the development of the Cathedral.

A statement issued in Accra and signed by Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah, the Executive Director of the Cathedral, said the strategy had four elements.

It said mass mobilization strategy, at the heart of which was a 100-cedis-club, which sought to mobilize a million Ghanaians able, and willing, to give 100 cedis a month to the project.

“A short code *979# has been developed for this purpose,” it said.

It said the Church mobilization, included statutory budgetary support from the Churches, and a National Cathedral Week, which for 2022 was slated for July 4-10, 2022.

The statement said the private sector strategy, at the heart of which was a business round-table to mobilize Christian businesses, and Christian businessmen and women, to financially support the project.

”International fundraising, which includes Ghanaian Diaspora Churches, and other international actors, who support the vision of the Project, ” it added.

The statement said a rigorous international procurement process ultimately led to the selection of a joint venture led by the Italian firm, Rizzani de Eccher, which project portfolio included the Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi.

It said two of the leading construction firms in Ghana are, Messrs Barbisotti & Sons, and De Simone.

The consortium of these three leading construction firms namely: RIzanni de Eccher, BArbisotti & Sons, DE Simone together formed the RIBADE JV

It said the construction had started, but to understand the scale of work that had been done already.

The statements said it was important to understand that the Cathedral includes seven levels, two basement levels and five upper levels, making it the highest civic building in Accra with a height of about 50m (cf. Job 600/Parliament offices is 45m).

It said as a stand-alone structure and with the bell tower reaching 58.5 M high, the total internal area of 86,000 m2 external civic realm including gardens, driving and walkways encompass 36,000 m2.

The statement said the Cathedral site establishment was completed, where five  cranes were purchased and delivered to site, three cranes have been installed to date, a concrete batching plant has been set up in the East Gardens, a Rebar cut and bending yard has been set up, Offices, Staff Canteen, Wash-and Toilet Blocks, Warehouses, Storages, Laydown areas, etc. have been set up.

“Further establishments items like  management, site staff, security, technical equipment and machinery, generators and tools have been provided by the contractor,” it said.

The area of about 70,000 m2 has been cleared, about 120 trees within the construction perimeter have been retained with existing services on site (Electricity, Water, Sewage and Telecommunication) have been relocated.

It said about 230,000 m3 have been excavated and removed from site and about 1,400 m3 concrete has been laid so far, while about 1.900 to of Rebar have been purchased and delivered to site, adding that about 220 to of Rebar have been installed to date.

“About 10,000 m2 Waterproofing material has been purchased and started to be installed,”it added.

It said a project with the magnitude of the National Cathedral required a substantial amount of preparation before structure begins to rise from the ground and visible to the general public.

The statement said construction had stalled for the time being due to the vagaries of the fundraising, but should restart soon.

Source: NewsGhana