Kumasi, June 22, GNA - Dr Mustapha Ahmed, Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, has called on the well-to-do Muslims to ass ist promote formal education in the Zongo communities, so as to provide the youth with a better future.

He said this was also necessary to help bring down the high level of poverty and ignorance among people in the Zongos. Dr Ahmed, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso-East, was speaking at the launch of the Ashanti Regional Zongo Education Fund in Kumasi.

The Fund would be used to support brilliant but needy school childre n and students in their academic pursuit.

School drop-outs would also receive assistance towards the acquisiti on of employable skills to lead decent and meaningful lives. The Deputy Minister said although Arabic education was vital for the development of every Muslim child, it was pertinent to have secular education. He welcomed the setting up of the Fund and said he was confident it would be of enormous benefit to many of the young people. Dr Ahmed made a personal donation of GH¢1,000.00 to the Fund. Alhaji Umar Farouk Saeed, the Sarikyi Zongo, appealed to philanthropists and corporate bodies to contribute generously to it to he lp achieve the set goals. He counselled the various ethnic and tribal groups in the Zongos to live peacefully.