It stressed that the National Cathedral is a significant gift that Ghana is giving to the worldwide Christian community, as well as a potential epicentre for religious tourism.
According to the Executive Director of the Secretariat, the National Cathedral has a multifaceted potential for the country, considering its broader significance and purpose.
Speaking to the media in Accra, Dr Paul Opoku-Mensah noted that one of the goals for putting up the National Cathedral is to make Ghana a religious hub for the Christian community worldwide.
“The path breaking design, the bible museum of Africa, and the convening platform and economic engine help to ensure the relevance of the project to the country, to the church in Africa and the Africans in the diaspora.
"Ultimately, the project is considered as Ghana's gift to the global Christian community worldwide with the objective of transforming Ghana to an African Christian hub. The goal is to turn Ghana as one of the leading sites for religious tourism on the African continent,” he said.
Emphasising the scale and potential of the project, Dr. Opoku-Mensah said the aspiration is to make the National Cathedral a world-class venue capable of hosting significant international events and other national events.
He said he envisions a site where global religious and cultural gatherings, including high-profile events and concerts, could take place.
“We are developing this to world class because of the location of the site, we really want to develop it to a standard where the Pope will be happy to host some of his meetings here.
“We are not saying it to bluff, in fact the people who are developing it, the Bible museum of Washington DC, have developed it to their standard also not all the ambassadors and the president has his meetings in the Bible Museum of Washington DC; they have the conference centre but that is the concept we integrated into the National Cathedral.
"We also have a special event concept, 5000 seater space in the centre of Accra, expandable. We will have the choirs and others have their concerts here. Global events that we are hoping to attract. In fact, part of the people we are putting together helping to develop it are people who are actually able to develop infrastructure that attracts tourists,” he noted.
Dr. Opoku-Mensah further highlighted ongoing discussions to develop courses on African Christianity, intending to offer these courses to a global audience.
This, he believes, will contribute to the Cathedral's sustainable revenue streams, ensuring its continuous development, programming, and maintenance.
“We also have online merchandise and online education which is part of the discussions we are having at the moment is really to see what can the national cathedral do in terms of Africa Christianity, that is the new phenomena and we have experts in this country who can help us develop courses which can be sold to the rest of the world.
"Ultimately, these revenue streams ensure that this national monument does not go the way of all our national monuments but has the resources of programming and maintenance,” he added.
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A prototype of the National Cathedral