The Ministry of Inner Cities and Zongo Development has developed a robust plan that is hinged on four strong pillars to fast track growth and development in zongo communities nationwide.

The roadmap by the ministry seeks to bring about massive infrastructure development, boost sanitation and draw out clear cut crime and security control measures.

“The Ministry has prepared a plan based on four pillars to deliver on its mandate namely; infrastructure and sanitation enhancement, social and economic development, heritage and culture, and Crime and Security control,” Mr Boniface Abubakar Saddique, the Minister of Inner Cities and Zongo said.

The Minister said this in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Mohammed Alhassan, the Director of Policy Planning Budget Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry during Jamiattul-Hidayatul Islamiat Fifth International Conference last Sunday in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital.

The Upper West Regional branch of the Jamiattul-Hidayatul Islamiat celebrated the confab to inspire members and rekindle hope of the youth in education.

Mr Saddique noted that zongo communities were the exclusive preserve of Islamic preachers and traders seeking economic opportunities down south.

But, in contemporary times, he said, the Zongos have evolved into cosmopolitan areas characterised by inadequate basic infrastructure and limited opportunities for economic activities.

The international conference was held at the Wa Jubilee Park on the theme: “Peace and Security is key to Global Islamic Development Network.”

Jamiattul-Hidayatul Islamiat strives to motivate, inspire, educate and rekindle hearts of students about life and is also aimed at serving the academic needs of communities, both locally and nationally, and to ensure that each of their students achieved their full potential to serve their communities effectively.

Alhaji Baba N. Dawud, the Secretary of Upper West Regional Chief Imam noted that the picture of insecurity that served as a recipe for civil wars had impeded development in the global Islamic states.

“The global terrorism index in 2015 recorded 9,929 deaths due to terrorism in Iraq in 2014.

“This is the highest ever recorded for a single country in the annual report of produced by Instituted for Economic and Peace (IEP) and a total of 32,658 people were killed by terrorists around the world by 2014 which is 80 per cent increase over the previous year 2013”.

He said Muslims as victims of insecurity in the west and other parts of the world, and it is pertinent to note that Islam is the fastest growing ethnocultural minority among countries in the Western world.

“Muslims especially those living in Western countries are increasingly becoming victims of contemporary forms of racism and xenophobic attack due to biblical-Christian influence,” Alhaji Baba said.

“Notable among them include; attacks on Burma Muslims by Buddhist majority, the shutdown of Aqsa mosque and among others”, he added.