Rev. Joyce Aryee, a member of the National Cathedral Board of Trustees, said the trustees are unaware of the entire seed money the government is giving to the project.
"I'm still looking for it, and I believe that's the issue we need to ask—since the state has indicated it will give us seed money, what proportion is it giving?"
No, we were not notified; we were just told about seed money, and we have relied on the seed money that the government has found on occasion. "We haven't been told how much the seed money is," she said in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Thursday.
When questioned how the board of trustees was functioning without the knowledge of government's commitment, she replied that in such cases, they presume that they are obliged to raise the overall budget and view "the other one [government's seed money] as a gift. It will be fantastic if the other guy [government] provides his present; else, I will build [the project] without it".
According to the Articles of Incorporation, the board of trustees is the project owner.
"Actually, the Articles of Incorporation make us the project owners [board of trustees]. "It will be a national monument," she stated emphatically.
A member of the National Cathedral Board of Trustees claimed that they were tasked with raising finances, while the government will provide additional assistance.
"When we were contacted, we were told that the project was never planned to be completely funded by the state. The state will undertake some things, and we, the members of the board, are responsible for raising the funds to build the Cathedral. "It was never intended to be entirely funded by the state," Rev. Joyce Aryee said.
She claimed that the board members were not constructing blindly because the seed money would not cover the entire cost of the National Cathedral's development.
"We are not building blindly since the seed money is not the full project budget," she said.
The National Cathedral has always been in the headlines for the wrong reasons, the most recent being a GH2.6 million controversy that is being investigated by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ).
National Cathedral Background
The National Cathedral is a pledge made to God by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo before of the 2016 general elections.
Nana Akufo-Addo stated that if elected president, he vowed to build a national cathedral for God and campaigned for the project after taking office in 2017.
He called the project a "priority among priorities," but said it will be paid for by the Christian community.
"The state is assisting this process by giving the land, the Secretariat, and seed money for the preparation phase," Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta noted in 2018. This National Cathedral partnership structure operationalizes, and is in fact a tangible representation of, the social partnership envisioned to stimulate participatory development of the country as our common aim."
Although the initial budget was set at $100 million, it has already risen to about $400 million.
The government has released GH25 million in seed money.
In June 2022, the government approved the transfer of GH25 million to the National Cathedral Secretariat as extra seed money for the project's development.
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, instructed in a letter to the Controller and Accountant's General that the funds be credited to Ribade Limited for partial settlement of outstanding claims.
"Authority is thus granted to you to disburse the sum [of] GH25,000,000.00 as additional seed money to the National Cathedral Secretariat for the construction of the National Cathedral in partial settlement of outstanding claims from RIBADE Limited," the letter said.
The government has also contributed funds to the project, which is now in the planning stages.