The Minister-designate for Inner City and Zongo Development, Boniface Abubakar Saddique has said the $50million seed capital to power the Zongo Development Fund (ZDF) is “too small” on the face of the many challenges that needed to be tackled within the zongos and inner cities.
“…The $50million, I mean strictly speaking, is just too small to begin major projects but the fact is that being a new ministry established under the presidency, you don’t immediately start requesting for very huge sums of money. What I want to do is to vindicate H.E. the president that ‘Yes, you’ve given me $450m…” he told the parliament’s Appointment Committee Wednesday, February 8, 2017.
However, he reiterated that his Ministry will in the interim be given access to a facility to help carry out the Zongos transformation agenda while it works and waits for the fund to become accessible.
“I am still a baby under the presidency, and so I believe that my budget is still under the President which will be called a facility, and for the facility, I will be able to access to do the job; but if it is a fund it will take me some months, if not years to get it established….I believe while we are working on the funds, we will be accessing the facility which will help me do my job,”
The Zongos in Ghana are settlements in the cities mainly populated predominantly by settlers from northern Ghana.
At least, there are 365 Zongos in the country currently of which the Akufo-Addo government has said it will ensure social balance in the system and push for “a minimum threshold of livability” for inhabitants of the zongos.
