Coronavirus slowed down construction of National Cathedral - Rev Kusi Boateng

Secretary of the Board of Trustees for the National Cathedral Project, Reverend Kusi Boateng, has blamed COVID-19 outbreak for the delay in the construction of National Cathedral, which has been on hold for some time now.

According to Reverend Kusi Boateng, the contractors who won the bid for the construction of the 5000-seater religious centre were unable to fly into the country to commence the work due to COVID-19 restrictions hence the delay in the last 9 months since president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cut the sod for its commencement.

He, however, added that the contractors, who work with one of the biggest construction firms in Italy, are currently in town and have started work.

“This construction, if I’m to tell you how it is, it’s not any regular construction that anybody can just do. One of the biggest construction firms in Italy that did the grand mosque of Abu Dhabi is the Rivani Construction Company. It’s the lead construction company who built a JV with Barbisotti and Sons.

“Obviously with the Covid, it was impossible for the winners as the contractors to have flown in to come and start any kind of a job. So with the Covid, obviously things were happening but there was no way things could have begun because the people that won the bid could not come to Ghana to work. So it was the Covid that slowed us down, but we’ve crossed that boundary and we have them in town, work has started and things are moving.” He said.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Pulse, Wednesday, he also dismissed claims the project was delayed due to lack of funds as there still more people supporting the project.

Explaining, Rev Kusi Boateng indicated that, “The main issue why the project had not started was not money because we have people that have supported us, we have people that are still supporting us and the government is also in the process of supporting us, so money is not the issue. But Covid and the challenges of appointing the contractor and all those things were the things that delayed us but now we’re really on course. The cathedral will be built.”