President Akufo-Addo with officials of the MCC
Ghana has been selected as one of the countries in West Africa to be beneficiaries of another Compact Programme from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).
The Acting Vice President of MCC, Ms Kyeh Kim, announced this when he called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, at the Jubilee House in Accra yesterday.
The Regional Compact Programme, according to the MCC acting Vice President, will be used to construct large-scale, cross-border infrastructural projects in a pool of countries in West Africa.
Describing the Regional Compact Programme as a Christmas present, Ms Kim indicated that the MCC had been given 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).
“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 Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, and also Benin and Niger.
“There are opportunities with your neighbours, especially with Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire that we can explore. We have already started having preliminary discussions on energy-focused cross-border infrastructure, as well as transport,” she said.
“With Cabinet having approved the ECG Concession programme successfully, she said the selection of Ghana to be a beneficiary of the Regional Compact Programme was 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 infrastructure.
“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 said.
On the ECG Concession programme, Ms Kim expressed the corporation’s appreciation to President Akufo-Addo for his personal engagement and leadership throughout the process, and for seeing it through.
“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 said.
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 programme, he said, would 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.”
BY YAW KYEI
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