Poverty should not make us shun our religiosity, Ofori-Atta
Government is mindful of taxpayers’ money, Finance Minister
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has noted that God will understand if Ghana pools its limited resources to build a National Cathedral.
According to him, the fact that Ghana is going through economic hardships does not mean it should shun its spirituality.
He also noted that the government is mindful of taxpayers’ money being used to support the building of the cathedral but will ensure that monies pumped into the construction are recouped within the shortest possible time after construction.
Ofori-Atta, who was speaking on GTV's Talking Point program on Sunday, June 12, 2022, said, "At any point in time when these buildings were built in Europe, was it ever the right time? How do we fund it will become the question? Is the executive mindful of the current situation?
"We shouldn’t snuff out our religiousness or spirituality because we are poor. The Lord will understand if we put our widows-mite in there.”
Ken Ofori-Atta also noted that the government is not spending as much on the National Cathedral as is being speculated by the media.
“That question being asked is that are we spending money from state coffers? Is that too much to do because we are politicizing it. Do we really want to stop it? That is going to be my question.
“As a Minister of Finance, we are looking at resources and how much we put in there at every point in time that is sensible and so as we speak, we have spent less than one-thousandth of our expenditure on that,” he observed.
Ken Ofori-Atta stressed, “I am very confident of raising revenue to be able to fund this and then more importantly if I want to look into the economics of it, I truly see an overwhelming capacity that this will pay off. Typically, I am looking at an internal rate of return, so we should put this in mind.”
View his Timepath below:
Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister