Ghana has made significant strides towards meeting the conditionalities for the release of the first tranche of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
In August this year, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Seth Terkper, on behalf of the government, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) signed, in Washington, the final document for the release of $497 million under the second compact of the MCA meant for the energy sector.
The release of the amount was, however, contingent on Ghana fulfilling certain conditions, a situation that prompted the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to express doubt over the government’s ability to access the facility.
But, while presenting the original copy of the signed document of the MCA to President John Dramani Mahama at the Flagsfaff House yesterday, the Chairman of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), Prof. Samuel Sefa-Dede, said there was no cause for alarm.
“There are several conditions precedent under the compact and many people have raised concern,” he said, but gave an assurance that MiDA was working fast to meet them.
Among the conditions are the appointment of a physical agent and a procurement agent.
“It’s a long process, but we’ve managed, within a short period, to conclude all the actions and requirements for the appointment of a physical agent and we are now waiting for the MCC’s no-objection,” he said.
On the procurement agent, Prof. Sefa-Dede, who was accompanied by the MiDA Compact One Chairman, Mr Martin Eson-Benjamin, stated that technical evaluation work had been carrie out and a report submitted to the MCC, which had been accepted by the corporation.
Besides the two, the MCC expected Ghana to select a bank that would handle the resources that would come from Washington, he said.
Following that, he said, MiDA had accepted the report of the evaluators of the bank.
He told the President that MiDA was working with the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum to ensure that all the other decisions that needed to be taken to ensure the release of $10 million under the compact for the Northern Electricity Development Corporation (NEDco) were addressed to the letter.
The ministry was also working on the Gas Action Plan as part of the conditions for the release of the first tranche, he said.
Under it, the payment of arrears owed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) had been a critical issue, Prof Sefa-Dede said, adding that MiDA was in consultations with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to get it resolved.
On the appointment of a CEO for MiDA, which is another requirement, he indicated that the authority had started with advertisements for the appointment of senior management staff.
He said the transition team was also doing a very good job to ensure the proper handing over of assets to the new MIDA management.
President
President Mahama congratulated the MiDA team on a good job done within the short period of its operations and urged it to keep up the spirit, adding, “We are looking in anticipation to see the commencement of the compact.”
He said the government had been vindicated on the decision to tailor the second compact of the MCA at the energy sector, looking at the challenges the nation had gone through in recent times in the power sector.
He expressed the hope that by the time the second compact would be fully completed, Ghana would be the leader in power generation in West Africa and be able to export to neighbouring countries.
Source: Graphic Online