The Inner City and Zongo Development Minister-designate says he would take the development of Zongo communities and urban areas seriously if approved by Parliament.

Boniface Abubakar Saddique said he would set up a “small, sizable” team to brainstorm on areas in the country that need an immediate fix.

Speaking to Mamavi Owusu-Aboagye, host of AM Show on the Joy News channel on MultiTV Monday, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Madina said they would consider both residential and non-residential areas.

The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has made the development of Muslim dominated areas known as Zongo communities one of its policy priority areas.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo promised to set up a Zongo Development Fund in the run up to the 2016 general elections.

He reiterated same to some Muslim clerics days after the Electoral Commission (EC) declared him the winner of the 2016 presidential poll.

To demonstrate his commitment, the President has created the Inner City and Zongo Development Ministry as one of six new ministries to spearhead his development agenda in the country.

President Akufo-Addo had explained at a Flagstaff House press briefing on January 18 that the new ministries would feed on the budget of the Office of the President to conduct their activities.

Alhaji Abubakar Saddique who was formerly Water, Works and Housing Minister in the erstwhile President John Kufuor government welcomed the new portfolio, promising to distinguish himself.

He does not believe in a top-down approach to development in the country. “You have to start from a very humble base maybe it will take you six months or maybe a year for your concept to be accepted.”

He said he would collaborate with the other ministries in the development of his concepts to avoid the “struggle for a turf [or] some kind of antagonism with other ministries.”

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