The National Hajj Committee will, henceforth, be a department under the newly created Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development, Boniface Abubakar Saddique, the sector minister, has said.

According to him, the organisation of the Hajj pilgrimage has been plagued by challenges, and often when there is a change of government, the new government blames its predecessor for all the difficulties arising from planning such event. However, he was positive that once the committee becomes a department under the ministry, such issues could be properly dealt with.

Speaking in an interview with Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on his appointment as the minister-designate for the sector, on Friday January 13, Mr Saddique said: “Anytime there is a new government, the previous one is blamed for the problems associated with Hajj, and so for some of these reasons the Hajj committee is going to be a department under the Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development.

“The committee will be more or less a department that will fall under the ministry and no government can change that. It will be one of the goals of the ministry.”

He added: “The Zongo Development Fund will be used in establishing scholarship schemes to assist the youths in the Zongo communities. Education in the Zongos will be one of the basic things the ministry will look at. Posting of teachers to schools in Zongos over the years has not been the best; sometimes it is very appalling that teachers who are posted to these areas do not go, and others go but do not do their work yet take salaries. We will encourage the teachers, give them incentives to go to these areas and also upgrade the school buildings in the Zongo communities to modern buildings.

“The ministry itself will help integrate the Zongos into the mainstream of the whole country and that is very important.”