Announcement of the Kumasi Ghana Temple
President Russell M. Nelson, 17th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced the Kumasi Ghana Temple on April 4, 2021, during the Sunday afternoon session of April 2021 general conference — one of 20 temples announced by the Church worldwide that day.
A house of the Lord for Kumasi will be the second for Ghana — where some of the earliest missionary work in West Africa was done following the 1978 revelation on the priesthood. Then-Church President Spencer W. Kimball sent missionaries to Ghana, where hundreds of converts, the organization of branches and the establishment of a mission led to a period of accelerated growth of the Church in this West African nation.
Then, in 1989, the government banned several religious organizations, including the Church of Jesus Christ. Historically called “The Freeze,” the ban lasted around a year and a half, but Ghanaian Saints continued to worship in their homes.
Church President Gordon B. Hinckley visited Ghana in 1998 and announced the first temple for that country in the capital city of Accra — the first in West Africa and the second on the African continent.
Timeline of the Kumasi Ghana Temple
The Kumasi Ghana Temple was announced by Church President Russell M. Nelson on April 4, 2021. On May 1, 2023, the Church released a site location for a house of the Lord in Kumasi, adjacent to an existing meetinghouse. Details about the temple’s groundbreaking have not yet been released.
Architecture and Design of the Kumasi Ghana Temple
According to site plans released by the Church on May 1, 2023, the Kumasi Ghana Temple will be a two-story building of approximately 22,750 square feet. The edifice will stand on a 2.08-acre site adjacent to an existing meetinghouse in the Bantama suburb of Kumasi. An arrival center will also be constructed.