Zongo Devt Ministry to tackle infrastructure, sanitation in c’ties

The Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development will construct roads, drains and street pavements in all Zongo communities across the country to address development challenges facing those communities.

As part of its development module for the Zongo communities and inner cities, the ministry will also pipe all waste water from various Zongo homes into drains to help keep Zongo communities clean.

The sector Minister, Mr Boniface Abubakar Siddique, disclosed this during a meeting with the chiefs and people of Nima, a suburb of Accra, yesterday.
The people were briefed on the reasons for the creation of the ministry, as well as the status of the Zongo Development Fund Bill.

“We are also committed to helping the people, especially women, to develop their business plans to enable them to present them to the banks for funding,” he added.

Focus

Touching on other development focus of his ministry, Mr Siddique said his outfit would also construct a number of schools and health facilities to address challenges facing Zongo people, particularly women.

Free SHS

The minister appealed to the chiefs and people of Zongo communities to take advantage of the free senior high school (SHS) education policy to send their children to school.

That, he said, would help children of such communities to be well educated to become responsible future leaders ready to contribute to the development of Zongo communities.

“With free SHS education, it is your responsibility as parents and guardians to ensure that every child in every Zongo community is well educated and it is also your duty to help bring up better children,” he stated.

Rationale

Mr Siddique said the government thought it wise to create the Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development to ensure the sustainable development of the various Zongo communities across the country.

He pointed out that programmes, such as urban project one up to five aimed at addressing the challenges in the Zongo communities did not make any serious impact.

“I, therefore, believe that the creation of my ministry will attract a lot of attention to Zongo communities, which suffer a lot of things such as diseases, crime, illiteracy and unemployment,” he said.

Resource ministry

The Member of Parliament for Ayawaso North, Mr Jajah Yussif, said although the creation of the ministry was laudable, various challenges facing it had undermined its capacity to deliver.

“All the ministries that were created by the government are functioning so well, except the Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development. The government must, therefore, commit more resources to the activities of the ministry to ensure its proper functioning,” he stated.

For his part, the Public Relations Officer of the Council of Zongo Chiefs, Alhaji Nana Fanyinama, expressed the appreciation of the chiefs and people of Zongos to the President for creating the ministry, which he said would help improve the welfare of the people.