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General News of Monday, 8 February 2021

Source: www.ghanaweb.com

Workers return to site for National Cathedral construction as work picks up again

The National Cathedral is to cost $100 million The National Cathedral is to cost $100 million

Workers have returned to the site designated for the construction of the National Cathedral, several months after they took a break occasioned by the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country.

According to graphic.com.gh, all occupants of the offices and buildings at the 14.5-acre land earmarked for the project, have fully vacated the place now, making way for the demolition of many more of the old buildings on the land.

The old Passport Office in Accra, remains the last building to have been evacuated, with the Daily Graphic reporting that bulldozers were seen on the site, busy at work, pulling down edifices.

It stated further that some tipper trucks too had been lined-up to collect the debris from the demolition, as workers serving as traffic wardens were seen directing traffic around the site.

The National Cathedral is a $100-million inter-denominational cathedral expected to have a 5,000 sitting capacity auditorium, including chapels and a baptistery, a music school, an art gallery, and a museum dedicated to the Bible.

The construction of the Cathedral is being supervised by a Board of Trustees instituted by the president and chaired by a former Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Ghana, the Most Rev. Samuel Asante Antwi.

He is deputized by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast, the Most Rev. Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, who recently publicly announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

In March 2017, the National Cathedral was proposed by the government to be a physical embodiment of national unity, harmony and spirituality, with design unveiled by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in March 2018.

He said at the time that the construction of the cathedral was in fulfilment of a promise he made to God in the run-up to the general election in 2016.

On March 5, 2020, a foundation stone to signify the commencement of the construction was laid, but work was put on hold on the outbreak of the pandemic, the coronavirus, in Ghana.