Kumasi Catholics launch pool fund

The Kumasi Archdiocese of the Catholic Church under the auspices of the Family Fountain Asset Management and Securities Limited has launched a  fund aimed at pooling resources for evangelisation and social responsibility projects of the church.

The objective of the pool fund is, among other things, to improve and expand health care delivery of the church, increase the formation and training of personnel and to deepen and rekindle the spirit of evangelisation.

Known as the Catholic Archdiocese of Kumasi Pool Fund (Cakp-Fund), the fund will accumulate capital from parishes and institutions under the archdiocese and give it to members with the best mix of viable investment, with high returns.

It will also help to grow funds for members and the archdiocese to help the church in its social intervention programmes and  support priests’ pension scheme, health and education.

Most Rev. Anokye

Speaking at the launch of the fund in Kumasi, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Kumasi Archdiocese, Most Rev. Gabriel Justice Yaw Anokye, said the fund was to support in a more efficient way, the evangelisation and development programme of the church.

He, therefore, implored the lay faithful to help the church in its evangelisation and poverty alleviation works by supporting the fund.

He said it was time the church turned to its members to raise the necessary funds for its activities.

According to the prelate, the church had no one to rely on but its members and the public to assist it to bring solace to many people who were suffering.

Most Rev. Anokye explained that all the 69 parishes within the archdiocese would be members of the fund and would contribute part of their annual harvest and 10 per cent of their reserve fund to the scheme.

Future projects

Most Rev Anokye said with the setting up of the fund, the archdiocese could undertake more projects with the returns from it. Some of the projects are the construction of a hotel facility at the Christian Village at Apire, building of a dialysis centre, setting up of a college of education and a micro-finance company.

To achieve those objectives, he said the church was training its human resources to be in a position to handle all those projects and already, some priests had been sent to study pharmacy and architecture with more to follow soon.

He was grateful to the management of Family Fountain Asset Management and Securities Limited for accepting to manage the fund for the church.

Fund managers

The Chairman of the Family Fountain Asset Management and Securities Ltd, Mr John Kofi Mensah, who launched the fund, said the pool fund concept was an innovation that would form a funding hub for all activities of the archdiocese.

He said it was to enable the rank and file of members of the congregation of the various parishes and churches to be more self-reliant.

According to him, the partnership between the church and the asset management company was to create a “well-defined, conscious, robust and sustainable support structure to pursue the traditional role of the church in an enhanced form”.

That novelty, he said, would ensure that all assets, both liquid and fixed, would be put to productive use and optimised through an integrated approach that would ensure consistent availability of cash flows.

According to Mr Mensah, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of First Capital Plus Bank, the model adopted by Family Fountain “will ensure that the Catholic Archdiocese which is endowed with vast resources can create liquidity without losing ownership”.

“The ultimate is to push most people above the poverty line or at least ensure affordability of the basic necessities of life,” he said.

Present at the launch were archbishop emeriti of Kumasi, Most Revs. Peter Akwasi Sarpong and Thomas Kwaku Mensah.

Also present was the presidential running mate of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, and Sir Justice Dennis Dominic Adjei, Justice of the Appeal Court.