Catholic Church cuts sod for construction of medical school, hotel
Two sod-cutting ceremonies have been performed by the Kumasi Archdiocese of the Catholic Church for the construction of a medical school with a teaching hospital and a four-star hotel, both in the Ashanti Region.
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The private medical school, which will be called Christ the Teacher University College, will be located at Sokwai-Mfensi in the Atwima Nwabiagya District, while the 150-bed, four-star hotel with a 1,000-capacity conference rooms will replace the Christian Village, near Santaasi in the Kumasi metropolis, which has been operational since 1975.
Both projects, which are being constructed through a build, operate and transfer (BOT) agreement, are a collaboration between the Kumasi Archdiocese and Zionist Construction Company Ltd, the funding agency.
The projects, which are expected to be completed within three years, will finally be handed over to the Catholic Church after 25 years on the expiration of the BOT agreement, but a management committee from the Catholic Church and the funding agency will manage affairs and meet yearly to review the contract based on the state of events with its operations.
The Vicar General of the Kumasi Archdiocese, the Very Rev. Fr Louis Tuffour, speaking at the so-cutting ceremonies, announced that the commencement of the two projects was a dream come through after years of planning and hard work.
Collaboration
He said the collaboration between the church and Zionist Construction was to support the government’s agenda to provide continuing and improving access to quality education in the country.
The Executive Chairman of Zionist Construction, Engineer Gilbert Nud Vonvorsh, pledged to ensure that farmers who would lose their livelihood as a result of the project would be duly compensated before the commencement of the project.
Holistic development
The Archbishop of the Kumasi Diocese, the Most Rev. Gabriel Justice Yaw Anokye, said the Catholic Church had an agenda for the holistic development of the human being, not only the spiritual well-being of its members.
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He explained that apart from prayers, the church would continue to support the physical development of the body and all activities of development; hence, the venture into health, the hospitality industry, spiritual centres, education, orphanages, the construction of boreholes and agriculture.
The Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Madam Elizabeth Agyeman, lauded the Catholic Church for its effort at complementing the government in bringing development to the people and the nation as a whole.