Zongo dev’t fund not for birthdays and funerals – Minister tells zongos

The Zongo Development Fund to be established by the government would not be a usual freebie, dishing out money to support naming ceremonies, funerals and other social events, minister-designate for Inner City and Zongo Development has underscored.

Boniface Abubakar Saddique spelling out the mission of the ministry that would operate from the presidency said the fund would solely be used for development projects.

He was responding to a possible challenge of people calling on him to take money from the fund to support certain social events when he took his turn at the Parliament Appointments Committee sitting on Wednesday.

“The Zongo Development Fund is not Father Christmas,” he remarked to disabuse the minds of prospective beneficiary communities: Father Christmas is a personification of Christmas as a benevolent old man with a flowing white beard, wearing a red sleeved gown and hood trimmed with white fur, and carrying a sack of Christmas presents.

“Not package for funerals…not to support birthdays” he hammered, explaining however that, it would not mean he will not give donations if he attends funerals of friends and family members.

It is for infrastructure development, to rehabilitate schools and stock them with books, pay Arabic instructors, undertake non-formal education, ICT training, to construct roads and drains, and general beautification of zongo communities, he maintained.

The president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced that the fund would be injected with 50 million dollars seed money.

Although he admitted that the amount is like a “drop in the ocean” considering the task ahead, he was confident it can start something meaningful.