History Behind The Project
The money for the Ark was fully raised in 2016 after the church raised money from her members and non members across the globe specifically for the project. The project was initially christened Faith Theatre and was intended to be built on 1000 acres of land behind Covenant University.
The Ark will specifically take 106,000 seats and will include a 24 Floor Mission Tower (International Headquarters Facility) made up of 2 pairs of 12 floors each.
It is to be built on the site of the old Faith Academy adjoining Faith Tabernacle which will now become its overflow facility. Faith Tabernacle and Faith Academy’s Foundation Laying both took place on 29th August 1998 and both projects lasted one year with the 50,000 capacity Faith Tabernacle project commencing on 18th September 1998 and dedicated on 18th September 1999.
According to Bishop Oyedepo, not one dime of the money contributed to this project since 2015 has been touched and the Church has maintained strict budgeting and never going out of her budget. ‘Right now’ says Bishop Oyedepo ‘ it doesn’t feel like what we are building (the Ark Project) is up to a bungalow’.
The project couldn’t take off as Bishop Oyedepo said God had not permitted him to proceed with the project.
The money remained with the church.
However, Bishop Oyedepo says he now has conviction and direction to go ahead with the project. Consequently, Faith academy was demolished alongside the church’s Institute and camp house. The name of the facility now christened “The Ark” instead of Faith Theatre.
Faith academy was then relocated behind Covenant university giving room for the new construction.
The stadium like facility was designed by Covenant University Department Of Architecture and would be built by a Nigerian engineering firm – Laralek Engineering.
The commissioning for the project happened in the early hours of today and construction has commenced this afternoon.