The minister of Inner-City and Zongo Development has revealed that the ministry is tapping into the experiences of Brazil to let zongo communities get the dividends developments.
According to the minister, the ministry is cooperating with the Brazilian embassy in Ghana to tap into their experience of creating descent homes for inner-city dwellers across the country.
Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface made this revelation when a Brazilian delegation called on him at office in Accra.
He told the delegation that the president took the decision to establish the ministry upon assumption of power to make the zongo communities see the dividend of development.
The decision to create the ministry was contained in the manifesto of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to bridge the development gap between the zongo communities and urban areas of the country he noted.
He said one of the cardinal areas the ministry wants cooperation in terms of its mandate is skills development, education and security among others.
According to the minister, the ministry is ever willing to tap into the success achieved by Brazil in the upliftment of inner cities and deprived communities.
He stressed that the president is willing to see the zongo communities develop like other sister communities in the country.
Explaining why the president established, the minister said ministry was established to include the excluded particularly the deprived communities into the development agenda of the country.
He told the Ambassador that there have been various development projects and programmes in the city but all the time the zongo community is cut off completely adding this has accounted for the deprivation in the these communities across the country.
He related that Nima in the heart of Accra has a population about one hundred thousand but has no single secondary school.
He said technical team of the ministry is working hard to use the establishment of the ministry to salvage the recruitment of extremist in the country by finding development opportunities for the youth.
It is view of view of this, that we need the assistance of development partners and donor partners and countries to assist in creating opportunities for people living in the zongo communities across the country.
‘We want to elevate the zongo communities by providing small housing schemes for the people in these deprived communities in the country he argued.
On her part, Brazilian Ambassador to Ghana Madam Maria Elisa De Luna pledged her country’s preparedness to collaborate with the ministry in areas like skills development, sports and health.
We are willing to provide the needed technical know-how for the skills development drive of the ministry.
In Brazil, ‘we had concept of skills development programme executed by the private sector and financed by the government; where the youth are equipped with skills in areas of carpentry, masonry among others create ready labour for industry.
She pledged her government’s preparedness to assist the ministry to establish these skills development schools and called on the ministry to furnish her outfit with all the needed information about the ministry.
According to her, embassy is ready for the piloting of the skills development schools in one of the deprived areas of the country.
‘We are interested engaging in organic things that will inure to the benefits of the communities rather than providing funding’.
Source:Happyghana.com
