IMF bailout: How Oppong Nkrumah responded to question about expenditure on National Cathedral

Government declines calls to seek IMF assistance

Government questioned about National Cathedral expenditure

The government of Ghana on the admission that the nation is currently in an economic crisis has commenced negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a possible bailout.

The fallout from the announcement has seen several Ghanaians question the basis for some of government’s expenditures including some public projects such as the National Cathedral.

Appearing on the Monday, July 4, 2022, edition of Citi FM’s Breakfast Daily program, the host, Bernard Avle sought to question why the government has decided to commit public funds towards the National Cathedral project at a time when the nation is in economic crisis.

“How do you justify the amount we spent on the Cathedral at the time we did?” he questioned.

In a seeming evasive manner, the minister declined to provide an answer to the question on the basis that he has yet to receive a briefing on matters surrounding the National Cathedral expenditure.

“This whole cathedral matter I think has generated a lot of public brouhaha. I have honestly asked for a full brief to understand why we paid what at what point in time. So as I sit before you this morning, I don’t have a full brief to speak to that matter. Our understanding initially is that it was supposed to be put together by the churches and private sector with some seed support from the state. I don’t have a full brief of the details on how that has gone so I am not going to go into that,” the minister noted.

Government is said to have so far expanded some GHC200 million towards the construction of the National Cathedral.

Among various concerns, some persons have questioned the decision to spend state resources on the project considering the current economic state.

The government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Information, on Friday, June 1, 2022, announced a decision to seek a bailout from the IMF to mitigate current economic challenges facing the country.

Following the announcement, the government has been under intense criticism over its earlier posture against a possible bailout.