Ghana gets $1 billion as “Christmas gift” from Millennium Challenge Compact to develop infrastructure

This is due to reasons that the country has consistently been adhering to the tenets of the MCC.

The benefit is as well as a result of two compacts the country was involved in totalling almost $1 billion which is meant to mostly develop road infrastructure and undertake power sector reforms.

The Acting Vice President of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Kyeh Kim, who paid a courtesy call on the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House on Monday, December 17, 2018, made the revelation.

The MCC Acting President believes that the government of Ghana is doing something right in the MCC.

According to her, Ghana “has got about $1 billion of infrastructure that is waiting to be built and that will trigger the possibility of large-scale cross-border infrastructure.”

She said, “this is 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.”

Ms Kim further announced that Ghana has been selected as one of the countries in West Africa for the Regional Compact Programme.

The programme would be used for the construction of large-scale, cross-border infrastructure projects in West Africa.

About the MCC

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a bilateral United States foreign aid agency established by the US Congress in 2004 to apply a new philosophy toward foreign aid.

It is independent of the State Department and USAID and signs compacts or threshold agreements with partner countries.

A compact is awarded if the country scores high on the selection criteria indicators.

If the country scores low but has a positive and upward trend on the selection criteria, it can still be eligible for a smaller grant called a threshold programme.

Each partner government is required to create a special purpose legal entity that would be accountable for implementing the compact programme.