The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of First Capital Plus Bank, Mr John Kofi Mensah is calling on religious bodies to do more in the alleviation of poverty in the Ghanaian society.
He said religious bodies have easy access to the masses and they are in the better position to reach out to the vulnerable.
Mr Kofi Mensah who is also the Board chairman of the Family Fountain Asset Management was speaking at the launch and fundraising ceremony for the Catholic Archdiocese of Kumasi pool fund on the theme ‘Wealth Creation for Evangelization and Poverty Alleviation’.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Kumasi Pool Fund (Cakp-fund) is collaborating with the Family Fountain Asset Management and Security to raise enough funds to put up projects.
The aim of the fundraising is also to help grow funds for members and the Archdiocese as a whole to support evangelism, priest pension scheme, education, health and other development projects.
The fund will also enable the Archdiocese to take up social intervention programmes and other cares that may become necessary in future.
Mr Kofi Mensah who was the guest speaker at the ceremony urged religious groups to step up efforts to alleviate poverty in the society.
“Religious bodies have easy access to the masses because their congregation is laity and therefore they are in the better position to reach the core of poor people. Religion is a powerful instrument, but the fact that they are in evangelism they can combine evangelism and poverty alleviation easily and do it better than Government,” he indicated.
He explained that the programme has combined both social and commercial projects to ensure sustenance of the fund.
The Social projects he said are mostly free of charge in terms of poverty alleviation while the commercial projects will also be necessary to sustain the programme.
He added that Family fountain is sinking all the needed expertise to help make the project a successful one.
The Archbishop of Kumasi, Most Rev.Gabriel J.Anokye for his part indicated that the pool fund will help the church in the spreading of the Gospel.
They could do it of course……if they wanted to……but they simply do not have time.
They are too busy ripping the poor off…….taking whatever they can from them.