There is an old, useful itch in political life: when something goes spectacularly wrong, you can either let it fester into an emblem of incompetence, or you can pivot creatively, audaciously and turn the mess into meaning. Ghana’s National Cathedral, that much-photographed monument to ambition and controversy, now offers such an opportunity. Not as a monument to who was right or wrong, but as a potential engine for jobs, meetings, tourists and national dignity if only we finish the forensic audit, hold the accountable to account, and reimagine the site as an international-grade convention centre.
Yes, I hear the gasp: “But it was meant to be a cathedral!” To which I reply: faith is not a building. Worship thrives in churches, fields, and living rooms. A convention centre well designed and run can host revival meetings, synods and Sunday services alongside trade shows, medical congresses, diaspora homecomings and international fora. It can be a stage for Ghana’s soul and its commerce. Or it can remain a half-finished hole in the ground where mosquitoes practice for the Olympics.
Rwanda’s modest lesson: infrastructure + stability = conferences + dollars
Rwanda’s rise as an events hub is not divine providence; it is deliberate policy married to infrastructure. The Kigali Convention Centre a complex completed in 2016 that external sources estimate cost roughly USD 300 million put Kigali on Asia-Africa conference maps.
That facility anchors a broader push: hotels, airports, visibility and, crucially, a reputation for order that conference organizers value. Rwanda’s tourism receipts jumped to about USD 620 million in 2023, a recovery and growth the Rwanda Development Board highlights as the sector’s strong comeback. The convention centre is a measurable part of the story: meetings bring delegates, delegates spend money, and destination images harden into brand equity.
Ghana already has much of what destinations crave: warm people, comparative geographic access, and cultural offerings that make visitors linger. We have festivals and initiatives that draw from the diaspora Beyond the Return, PANAFEST and other heritage events that remind the world why Ghana matters to the African story. But we are missing a contemporary magnet: an internationally credible, flexible convention complex that can host plenary audiences, parallel sessions, exhibitions and the odd gospel crusade all under one roof.
So how much did we really spend and what now?
The forensic question matters because good policy must be honest about cost. Recent government disclosures and audit reporting point to approximately USD 97 million spent on the
National Cathedral project as of mid-2025, with serious procurement and management questions raised by audit reviews and investigative write-ups.
Those reviews recommend forensic follow-up, recovery of misapplied funds, and potential prosecution for procurement breaches and unexplained payments. That’s not small change, and it is a political and moral obligation to see value returned to the public purse.
For comparison: Rwanda’s convention complex price tag is often cited at about USD 300 million (a large, country-transforming investment). Ghana has not ploughed that exact sum into a single, internationally functioning meeting complex. What Ghana has done, however, is spend tens of millions on a project that today sits incomplete and contested.
The salient point is not an exact one-for-one price comparison; it is this: the funds already expended, combined with a smart conversion strategy, could yield far more public value as conventions anchor than as a permanent monument to what went wrong.
The pragmatic moral: complete the audit, then pivot boldly
Step one is the obvious but non-negotiable: complete the forensic audit. Transparency is not performative; it is preventive. The audit should be thorough, public, and fast enough to be credible without being rushed. The people who misapplied funds if any are confirmed must face the law and the state should pursue recovery of any proven looting. This is not vengeance; it is stewardship.
Step two is the creative pivot: repurpose the site into a world-class convention centre designed from the inside out for multipurpose programming. The brief would include: a main plenary hall (flexible seating from 2,000 to 5,000), multiple mid-sized breakout rooms, exhibition halls with easy freight access, congress administration rooms, VIP and media facilities, and spaces that can be booked for worship on weekends. Design it to be green, resilient, and revenue-positive. Lease components to private operators; let a national-private partnership manage the enterprise with audited transparency.
And here lies an important truth policymakers often pretend not to know: credible private investors already understand the predictable returns on a well-located convention centre. They will gladly partner government to complete and operationalise the facility swiftly, because the economics of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) are not speculative they are proven. This is not charity; it is rational investment seeking a functional state partner.
The design language can be elegant and it need not offend faith. In fact, religious bodies should be invited in as core stakeholders: they will want their services, but done with a wider national payoff. Audit first; plan second; build public confidence always.
What the conversion would deliver — not in piety, but in pragmatism
- Jobs and skills: construction work to finish and refit, long-term hospitality and events employment, professional conference management careers.
- Tourism leverage: conferences fill hotels mid-week, raise average spend, and create repeat visitors who combine business with leisure. Kigali proved this at scale; smaller countries can replicate the demand patterns.
- Diaspora magnet: Ghana’s festivals already draw people home. A convention centre could host diaspora summits, academic meetings, and cultural exhibitions tied to Beyond the Return and PANAFEST, turning one-off visits into longer engagements.
- National prestige without sanctimony: an elegant venue signals seriousness to investors and international organisations who plan events years in advance. That is soft power with a bank account.
“You’re desecrating faith.” No. We are arguing that faith is not hostage to a building. Christians, and Ghanaians generally, can worship in many dignified places. The proposal explicitly makes space for religious gatherings and guarantees them as core programming. The name need not be “Cathedral” for worship to happen under the same roof.
“But people will hate that politicians will have ‘won’.”
Then let the politicians lose by being prosecuted if they broke the law, and by seeing the site become a public asset, returning jobs and revenue to citizens. Democracy is about consequences. Justice and utility are not mutually exclusive.
Policy nudges that would make this work
- Finish and publish the forensic audit with clear recommendations and a timeline for recovery and prosecution where warranted.
- Open a public-private tender for a conversion and operations partner with international experience in convention management.
- Anchor the centre with a pipeline of scheduled events: a Diaspora Summit, an annual African Creative Industries Expo, a Medical Congress, and alternating PANAFEST/Heritage Weeks events that book rooms and create repeat business.
- Ring-fence a portion of recovered funds to service debts and underwrite early operational costs so the centre can reach break-even quickly.
Final, uncomfortable truth and a hope
It is easy to write elegies for what went wrong, or to hurl invective across the political aisle in righteous anger. That sells newspapers and soothes the soul for a Tuesday afternoon. But nations are built by those who turn bitter lessons into durable institutions.
Ghana can let the cathedral remain a rotting argument or it can turn that argument into a forum: for business, for reunion, for prayer and for policy. We can keep worship in our churches and move our national meeting- grounds into a facility that pays its way, that showcases Ghana’s hospitality, and that turns diaspora affection into measurable development.
If the audit finds malfeasance, let the law take its course. If the audit finds errors and inefficiency, let redesign take its course. Either way, let us be brave enough to reassign a bungled monument into a tool that opens our economy, not our wounds. The cathedral need not die to have served its true purpose: to awaken us to honest accounting, to strategic thinking, and to the realisation that public money is not a private art supply for grand political sets.
Build the convention centre. Fill it with ideas. Invite the world. And, oh yes prosecute anyone who thought public trust was a personal savings account. That will be the sermon that matters.
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