EP Church, Ghana to expand businesses and projects

Ho, Sept. 10, GNA - The Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EP), Ghana, will expand the Church's investment portfolio in its existing hospitality business and agriculture projects to increase its income generating capabilities as part of efforts to wean it off dependence on donor funding.

As part of efforts to realise this objective, the Agricultural Extension Services Department of the Church's Social Works Programme had gone into citrus and mango production and is soon to start poultry. The Right Reverend Dr Livingstone Buama, the Moderator of the Church, announced this on Thursday, when he was addressing the 63 Synod of the Church in Ho under the theme, "That All May Have Life In Fullness".

He said the Kekeli Hotel at Ho had been upgraded to a Two Star Hotel by the Ghana Tourist Board adding, "It is becoming increasingly clear that we cannot run projects and programmes on donor support alone, because there is evidence of donor fatigue. We must do all we can to be truly self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating".

Rt. Rev. Dr. Buama said the church had been involved in development projects over the years and that "while it is true that the human being shall not live by bread alone, it is equally true that he or she cannot live without it. When people are sick, hungry and weak and you say Praise the Lord, they cannot enthusiastically say, hallelujah". The EP Church, founded by the Bremen Missionaries in 1847, with its first outpost in Peki, spread throughout the Volta Region especially, and beyond to become an important agent of development apart from government.

It actively participates in the provision of educational and health facilities and is currently intensifying skill training for the underprivileged in the Volta Region. 10 Sep. 04