National Cathedral of Ghana in Accra to be investigated, says President John Mahama

There is nothing to show for this sum but a huge crater in a plot of valuable land in central Accra, previously occupied by state buildings, judges’ homes and financial firms.

Ghana is a deeply religious country, where 70% of people are Christians.

The National Cathedral of Ghana was envisioned to be a sacred space for all Christians, where national religious services could take place. It is also intended to house a Bible museum and a national conference centre.

At a thanksgiving service on Sunday, Mahama said: “The commission on human rights and administrative justice (CHRAJ) directed government to audit the project and investigate any misuse of public funds. We would soon activate such an investigation into the project.”

However, he did not rule out finishing the cathedral.

“We can reach a more reasonable figure for achieving such a project and together we can raise the funding for it,” he said.

“Such a reconsideration of this project might even include changing the current site that was chosen for the project. The project must be achieved at a reasonable cost, in the current circumstances that Ghana is going through, it makes no sense to achieve a project at a whopping sum of $400m.”

On Monday, new Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson suggested public money would no longer be used for the project, telling a parliamentary committee that the government “would work to cut off wasteful expenditure and the national cathedral project is one of them”.

Ghana has been hit by its worst economic crisis in a generation and last year received a $3bn (£2.5bn) bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The rate at which the price of goods is rising, or inflation, has improved significantly since the bailout, but is still high at 23.8%.

Work on the cathedral had stalled after contractors wrote to the government, saying they were unwilling to continue due to a lack of payment.