The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has encouraged Muslims to pray for forgiveness for God to grant the country blessings during this year’s Ramadan celebration.

He believed that as Muslims forgive each other, God will also forgive them of their sins.

“This month of Ramadan is unique and so I decided to come down from Accra, pray and worship with brothers and sisters and friends. As we pray for God’s guidance and blessings, we must continue to remain united and God will grant us grace, peace and the desired development and all the benefits in this 10th day of prayer and fasting. As God forgives you, you should also do the same,” Dr Bawumia prayed.

The Vice President made the remarks over the weekend when he visited the Muslims community at Kamgbunli in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region, as part of his tour of the country to observe the Ramadan fast with the people.

He told the faithful that the government, with two years in office, had shown strong commitment to the welfare of Muslims and Zongo communities in the country with the creation of the Zongo Development Fund and the Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development, arguing that this feat had never been achieved in Ghana’s political history.

He said: “From 1957 to 2016, about 60 years of Ghana’s development, the budget of the country had not captured any funding for the Zongos. We have established the Zongo Development Fund to ensure the consistent development of the Zongos. The team is working hard taking data for analysis for the working plans, and ‘Insha Allah’ we will deliver on our mandate. There are challenges, but, gradually, we will deliver.”

Dr Bawumia noted that Kamgbunli was a very disciplined Muslim community and was happy to join them in prayers and also break the fast, saying that “prayer was key to every Muslim.”

On other programmes, he said the government’s One district, one factory programme, was taking shape while the One district, one village, one dam was also on course to accelerate agricultural production, saying that already fertilisers had been distributed to farmers countrywide.

Dr Bawumia said the backlog of 54,000 nursing trainees since who were trained since 2012 had also been cleared, while another 100,000 graduates had been roped into the Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) programme adding “we want all Ghanaians to benefit from our development plans and programmes.”

“We have not finished; we are working around the clock gradually, we will get to all communities in the country, 275 Mercedes Benz ambulances would soon arrive and we will take delivery for distribution as part of the One district, one ambulance programme for the health sector,” he assured.

“This is the first time in the history of the country and I assure you that the government has seriously turned its attention to Zongo development,” The Vice President said.

The Chief Imam of the Al-Sunnah Community in Kamgbunli, Sheikh Suleimana Mozu, told the faithfuls to believe and rely on God especially as they celebrated the Ramadan month and reported that “in Kamgbunli we love everybody.”

He said, the Muslim community was happy with the visit of Dr Bawumia and also the decision to pray and fast with them.

The Vice President also joined Muslims at the Axim Central Mosque where Sheikh Abubakar led the 3:00p.m. prayers, seeking for grace, unity and peace in the country, stating that the occasion would ensure fruitful interactions with Dr Bawumia’s entourage.

The Minister of Inner City and Zongo Development, Dr Sheikh Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, also pointed out that Islam promoted brotherliness among the faithful.

Earlier, Vice President Bawumia visited the Muslim community at Mpohor and joined them for the afternoon prayers.

As part of the Ramadan visits, he distributed assorted items including rice, sugar and milk to the Muslim communities.

Other officials on the visit included the Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, Minister of State at the Office of the Vice President, Alhaji Abu-Bakar Saddique Boniface and Deputy Minister of Energy, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam.