Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Ayine, has questioned the government’s expenditure on the construction of the National Cathedral, arguing that the money could have been redirected to critical healthcare infrastructure.
According to Dr Ayine, funds spent on the project could have helped complete some of the stalled hospitals under the former Akufo-Addo administration’s Agenda 111 programme.
He made the remarks on Thursday, August 13, 2026, during the district-level launch of the Free Primary Health Care programme in the Bolga East Constituency of the Upper East Region.
Dr Ayine said a report prepared by audit and consulting firm PwC on the National Cathedral project was presented to him on Friday, August 7. He said the findings had prompted questions about whether public resources committed to the project could have been put to more pressing national needs.
“The PwC report on the National Cathedral was presented to me last Friday. The monies spent on the National Cathedral from that report could have been used to complete some Agenda 111 Hospitals,” he said.
The Attorney General also criticised the manner in which the National Cathedral project was initiated and managed, particularly in relation to the resources committed to its construction.
“You don’t build a house of God in the manner in which they went about it,” Dr Ayine stated.
His comments come amid renewed public debate over the National Cathedral, a major religious and national landmark conceived under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Since its inception, the project has attracted scrutiny over its financing, expenditure, construction progress and the use of public funds. The debate has intensified against the backdrop of Ghana’s economic difficulties and competing demands for government investment in sectors such as healthcare, education and infrastructure.
Agenda 111, meanwhile, was introduced by the Akufo-Addo administration as an ambitious healthcare infrastructure programme aimed at constructing hospitals in districts considered to lack adequate medical facilities.
Several of the projects have faced delays, with questions raised over funding and the pace of construction.
Dr Ayine’s remarks therefore place the National Cathedral debate within a broader discussion about public spending priorities and the need to channel limited state resources towards essential services.
Speaking at the launch of the Free Primary Health Care programme, he stressed the importance of strengthening access to basic healthcare, particularly at the district level.
His comments are likely to renew discussions about the cost of the National Cathedral and whether the resources committed to the project could have been deployed to address infrastructure gaps in Ghana’s health sector.
