Gov’t to restructure current MiDA management

• Posted on August 6, 2014August 6, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Government has indicated plans to restructure the current management of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), as it completes the signing of the second MCC compact with the US government.

Ghana on Tuesday signed $498 million under second compact of the Millennium Challenge Account to be used for the improvement of power distribution in the country.

A day after the ratification, Finance Minister Seth Terkper says the team that supervised the management of the first compact would be reorganized to suit new projects to be undertaken.

“Immediately after the agreement is signed, we need to set certain conditions [in motion]… form the team that will work on the project [and] make up the management structure,” Mr. Terkper disclosed on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Wednesday.

Ghana has between three to four years to access the funds and use it for the intended projects.

However, Mr. Terkper said focus is on the energy sector because it will provide the backbone for the private sector to blossom through job creation and reduce poverty levels in the country.

“We [government] ourselves are investing in the gas processing plant…so the compact comes in to complement that domestic agenda”.

“it is not about US official assistance, it is not just about the compact that we signed…it is also about a significant private sector element,” he underscored.

Facts about MiDA

The Millennium Development Authority was enacted by the President of the Republic of Ghana and Parliament of Ghana through act 702 on 23rd March, 2006. An amendment to act 702, hereby called act 709 was assented to on 20th July, 2006.

The objectives of the Authority are three fold:

1. To oversee and manage the implementation of the Ghana Programme under the Millennium Challenge Account of the United States Government for sustainable reduction of poverty through growth as contained in the Compact;

2. To secure the proper and effective utilisation of the Millennium Development Fund granted to Ghana under the Compact; and

3. To oversee and manage other national development programmes of similar nature funded by the Government of Ghana, Development Partners or by both.

The Authority may on the expiry of the Millennium Challenge Account Programme undertake programmes of similar nature determined by the President of the Republic of Ghana.

By: Jerry Tsatro Mordy