Alhaji Ben Abdallah Banda
A three-pronged project to address some challenges of the Zongos and Inner Cities across the country has been announced by the Coordinator of the Zongo and Inner Cities Development Secretariat of the Office of the President (ZICDS), Alhaji Ben Abdallah Banda.
The announcement was made during a speech delivered by the Coordinator at the maiden edition of the Maxwell Investments Group (MIG) and the Zongo and Inner-Cities Development Secretariat (ZICDS) Business Forum held in Accra under the theme, “Avenues To Manoeuvre During An Economic Downturn.”
He added that discussions about the projects are in their final stages. Towards this end, he explained that MIG has established partnership with the KNUST-Africa Institute of Sanitation and Waste Management of the Centre for Capacity Building and Innovation to provide highly affordable, accredited courses that will empower the youth of the Zongo and Inner Cities and equip them with the skills necessary to succeed in today’s competitive world.
The projects are the Useful, Affordable Education Drive template which as he put it “aligns with our Government’s commitment to promoting literacy and fostering a comprehensive and inclusive development strategy for our nation.”
Participants in the programme, he went on, will receive KNUST-accredited certificates, guaranteeing that the skills they have acquired are recognised and valued and also give them a competitive edge on the job market.
Under the Insurance Community Project module, Zongo and Inner Cities residents will be given basic healthcare coverage, one at a time. The MIG, he said, is already working with local health insurance providers to develop a sustainable model that ensures affordability and accessibility for all community members. “The insurance community project include specialised services such as mental healthcare, dental care, women’s health issues, geriatrics and vision care,” he explained.
The Maxwell Home Project, he said, will deal with the critical subject of accommodation in the Zongo communities and will support the government efforts to address affordable housing issues. “Our innovative working model allows individuals to pay rent monthly from the onset, while the project takes on the 1-2 years down payment on behalf prospective tenants after they have passed due diligence.”
He expressed gratitude to Dr. Maxwell Ampong and his team at MIG for their unwavering commitment to the communities.
The forum and development game-changing modules as announced by the Coordinator are the outcomes of a partnership entered into between MIG and the ZICDS on behalf of the Zongo Development Fund (ZoDF) last year. The partnership, as the Coordinator captured it in his speech, seeks “to complement the enormous efforts and impacts made by Government within the Zongo and Inner Cities communities across Ghana.”
According to Alhaji Banda, “under the partnership agreement, MIG will work closely with the Secretariat and the ZoDF to organise forums, training, workshops and town hall meetings with our beloved country’s leaders, members and stakeholders.”
The MIG, he said with the guidance of the leadership of the Zongo and Inner Cities Development Secretariat (ZICDS), has started talks with an European company to invest a whopping amount of money into bamboo processing equipment and the setting up of a plant locally. This is an initiative which he said would create opportunities within the Zongos and Inner-Cities because of bamboo being an alternative to biofuel.
MIG is a trading firm with a disciplined approach towards executing development models, agricultural sector optimisation, local and international trade and soft commodities among others.
By A.R. Gomda