Ghana finally signs for $498m second MCC Compact after some hitches
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of the US government has finally signed the second Compact with Ghana, worth $498 million, bringing the total Compact received by Ghana so far to $1.4 billion, after a long drag.
The Compact should have been signed in December 2015, but the Ghana government delayed in meeting the terms of the agreement, and then second date was set in June 2016, which was also missed. It was finally settled in September.
Today October 27, 2016, the CEO of the MCC, Dana J. Hyde arrived in Ghana and signed the deal to make the funds available to Ghana.
The Ghana Power Compact between the MCC and the Government of Ghana (GoG) was signed in August 2014, and disbursement was expected in the middle of 2015, but it didn’t materialise until now.
Speaking to journalists in Accra, Ms Hyde indicated that after a five-year consultation process they have reached this final stage.
The fund will be invested into the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to make it efficient.
Ms. Hyde was emphatic in response to a question that the ECG will not be privatized, and there is not a single US company among the bidders.
The goal, Ms. Hyde said, is to “strengthen ECG, and it is not privatization.”
The employees of the ECG have been agitating against the injection of funds to restructure the company.
But a US Embassy staff working on the Compact said as part of the agreement, there is a five-year moratorium on retrenchment. In effect, no employee of ECG will lose his or her jobs.
Ms Hyde praised Ghana for going through the second Compact, because of the stringent selection process. So far, only half of the countries on the Compact have gone through a second one, she said.
She noted that in meeting the criteria for the Compact, Ghana has consistently scored very high. Among the criteria are, economic freedom, governance and investment.
“MCC has only one mission, to eliminate poverty by creating economic growth and opportunity,” she said.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
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