The Western West Africa Episcopal District of the AME Zion Church, which broke out of the Methodist Episcopal in 1875, is exploring the use of waste to generate electricity for communities in Ghana.
The Episcopal, comprising congregations in Liberia, Togo, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, under the leadership of Bishop Seth Lartey, announced this during an interaction with a section of the media on Wednesday in Accra.
Bishop Dr Lartey said a lot of work had gone into the energy project, in partnership with a US company and currently looking for potential investors.
He said the “dumsorization” (load shedding of power) has become a major problem, not only in Ghana but in many African nations and as a church, they were equally concerned in helping to reduce its impact on people as well as find a lasting solution.
Although it has contributed so much in terms of economic and social development in Ghana and other countries, Bishop Lartey said, the church had become a victim of its own humility because it had failed to tell its own success story.
According to him, illustrious sons like Dr Kwagyire Aggrey of blessed memory, through whom the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah took inspiration from, served as a minister of the Zion Church, but many Ghanaians had either forgotten or did not know.
In Ghana, the Zion Church can boast of about five Senior High Schools, including the Zion Girls School in Winneba, Aggrey Memorial Senior High in Cape Coast.
At the basic level, the church has built over 550 schools across the country.
“You may not see us on television or in the press but we are serving great minds and playing a vital role to address the human resource needs of countries,” Bishop Lartey stated.
“We are not satisfied with just being a congregation, we want to be part of the country’s development effort,” he said, adding that, the church in the last three years had been working with external partners to support economies in critical sectors such as energy, road and unemployment.
Bishop Lartey said for the road sector, the church was working with a South African firm to help improve conditions of roads in some parts of the country.
“We have to work to ensure that the future is never left without custodians. The AME Zion Church is not here to sit and criticize but to be part of the development of our society,” Bishop Lartey noted.
The Western West Episcopal is celebrating its 140 years anniversary in December this year. In Ghana, Keta in the Volta Region would be the centre for all the major activities.
