Sekondi, June 9, GNA - A 700,000 dollar hostel complex built by the Methodist Church of Ghana would become operational in September this year, Church officials have said.

The four-storey hostel, initiated in October 2002 by the Lay Movement Council of the Church, was designed to accommodate 320 students. It would have six furnished common rooms, Television facilities, business and communication centres, Internet Caf=E9.

Mr Ato Essuman, Lay President of the Methodist Conference at the Christ The King Methodist Church, said this in a speech read for him on Wednesday as part of activities marking the Lay Movement Week. The celebration is on the theme: "Go Labour on; spend and be spent"

He said the hostel would have car parks, landscaping, and security facilities and would be covered by a comprehensive insurance. Mr Essuman said provision of the hostel was part of the Church's social responsibility geared towards supporting the government in its quest to provide infrastructure for tertiary education.

"As soon as the church established the Methodist University College in 2000, we realised that we would need hostels and other basic facilities to make tertiary education stress free and reduce the dependence of students on private rented premises" he added. Mr Essuman said many prospective students who would have been denied tertiary education because of the lack of suitable hostel facilities could now pursue higher education with ease.

The Lay President said an independent corporate entity would be formed to manage the hostel under a board of directors.

He said the Methodist Church, which would be 170 years in Ghana next year, would soon launch a 100 million cedis Northern Ghana Development Fund.

Mr Essuman said the fund would provide opportunities for several young people to have access to education and establish income-generating projects for the people.