What’s a familiarization tour of Nima without landing at the national mosque nearby?
So tour guiding trainees of the Hotel, Catering, and Tourism Training Institute (HOTCATT), after weaving through the Nima market and sections such as Los and Great Hollandians, crossing the Berlin Bridge that unites Nima and New Town as well as beholding the big drain nicknamed Gutter that serves as boundary between and Mamobi, the trainees headed for Kawukudi alias Kanda to take in the magnificence of the National Mosque last weekend.
The Ghana National Mosque was birthed by the tireless contribution of Turkish and Ghanaian organizations, including the Turkish Hudai Foundation, the Office of the National Chief Imam of Ghana, and the Diyanet Foundation of Turkey.
The Ghanaian Government via President Jerry John Rawlings gave the land for the Ghana National Mosque in Accra in 1995. He did so to replace a mosque that was destroyed to build Rawlings Park.
It sits pretty on 40 acres of land in the Kanda neighborhood of Accra.
Construction began in 2011 and was opened to the public in 2021 as COVID-19 shutdown scuppered the earlier opening date.
The mosque is a replica of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. It is of Ottoman architecture inspiration. It is 33 meters high and 19 meters in diameter. It has three entrances, four minarets, two balconies, and 50 domes. It has a polished marble exterior and lead-clad domes.
Funded at over $11 million by the Turkish Hudai Foundation in Accra with the support of the Turkish government, the National Mosque Complex is the second largest mosque in West Africa.
The complex includes a grand mosque in the center, surrounded by the buildings for the Office of the National Chief Imam of Ghana, Office of the Hudai Foundation, library, auditorium, conference and seminar rooms, senior high school, dormitory, clinic, guest rooms, dining hall, washrooms, ablution fountains, slaughter house and a large parking lot.
The Ghana National Mosque complex is open to the public between the hours of 8:30am to 4:00pm every day.
Tourists who come on Fridays between 12:00pm to 2:00pm would wait at the waiting room for Muslims to finish observing Friday congregational prayer.
Contact: 0243 58945
