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Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Government has contributed Sh500 million towards the construction of the 5000-seater Nakasero Cathedral.
President Yoweri Museveni announced the donation at a fundraising drive at All Saints Cathedral in Kampala on Sunday.
He commended Christians for shouldering the burden of constructing a bigger church.
Museveni tasked Christians to mobilise citizens to work hard and generate resources to enable them to contribute to such projects.
He explained that majority of the people who turn up for fundraising drives only come to spectate but don’t contribute.
Construction of the three-floor cathedral kicked off in March 2011 on the about 2.5 acres of land in Nakasero. According to the Archbishop of Church of Uganda, Stanley Ntagali, the sh6bn cathedral is expected to host Christians for this year’s Christmas celebrations.
All Saints Cathedral is one of the oldest churches in Uganda having been founded in 1912 by the British colonial government. It currently acts as the seat for the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda. The cathedral according to Rev. Ntagali will have two levels of parking, an administration block and a church hall.
The Archbishop thanked President Museveni for his initial contribution of sh50million towards the Cathedral construction during the first phase of the project and a tax waiver of over Shillings 850 million.
The construction of phase II of the project commenced in June last year but slowed down due to lack of funds according to Ntagali.
The Cathedral is being built in three phases. The current Phase II which commenced in May 2017 will cost sh7.1 billion. The cathedral is currently on roofing stage with nearly Shillings 5 Billion collected.
According to the Archbishop, two galleries were completed by end of July 2018 while the Bell (and Prayer) Tower is currently at 11th Level out of the 12 planned floors.
Hoisting of roof trusses in structural steel has commenced with the intention that the roof structure will be covered in time for Christmas celebrations this year.Meanwhile, president Museveni used the occasion to apologize to Ugandans mishandled by his security details.
This follows a complaint by the Archbishop in Jinja recently faulting the president’s security for mishandling them whenever they attend the same events with the president.
Ntagali noted that as religious leaders they only carry the scriptures and mean no harm to the president to warrant such treatment.
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