The Acting Vice President of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Ms Kyeh Kim, has announced that Ghana has been selected as one of the countries in West Africa to be beneficiaries of another Compact programme from the MCC.
The Regional Compact Programme, Ms. Kim said, will be used for the construction of large-scale, cross-border infrastructural projects in a pool of countries in West Africa, of which Ghana will be a beneficiary.
The Acting MCC Vice President made this known on Monday, 17th December, 2018, when she paid a courtesy call on the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at Jubilee House, in Accra.
Describing the Regional Compact Programme as “a Christmas present”, Ms. Kim noted that the MCC was recently awarded the legislative authority to enter into concurrent regional compacts.
“Our previous statute allowed us to enter into one compact at a time. So, the new legislation that has been offered by our US congress, as well as signed into law by our President, allows us to enter into this (regional compact),” she said.
Ms. Kim continued, “What we are exploring, in the case of Ghana with its neighbours, is potential for large-scale for cross-border infrastructure. The other countries that were selected in this pool of countries include neighbours such as Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, and also Benin and Niger.”
She indicated that “there are opportunities with your neighbours, especially with Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire, that we can explore. We have already started having preliminardiscussions on energy-focussed cross-border infrastructure, as well as transport.”
The acting MCC Vice President, however, indicated that there is flexibility and possibilities with regards to the projects to be embarked on in the pool of beneficiary countries.
With Cabinet having approved the ECG Concession programme successfully, she added that the selection of Ghana to be a beneficiary of the Regional Compact Programme is a “big reward”.
“You got about $1 billion of infrastructure that is waiting to be built, and that will trigger, in addition, to the possibility of large-scale cross-border ingfrastructure. Because Ghana has been such an outstanding partner, this is a testament to the partnership and friendship that we feel between the two countries, and your leadership in pushing this process through has been absolutely instrumental,” she added.
On the ECG Concession Programme, Ms Kim expressed the appreciation of the MCC to President Akufo-Addo for his personal engagement and leadership throughout the process, and for seeing it through, resulting in the release of the $190 million tranche for the Compact.
“In every instance, your leadership has pushed this Compact to make progress and made tough decisions for the benefit of the electricity sector, and hopefully, to avoid future ‘dumsor’,” she added.
On his part, President Akufo-Addo thanked the MCC for the decision to include Ghana in the Regional Compact Programme, describing it as “very good news.”
The opportunities from the progamme, he said, will be of immense benefit to Ghana, adding that “I am a strong, fervent believer in the prospects of ECOWAS, and of the regional market that ECOWAS potentially represents.”
