Mr Alphonsus Zeon, Director for Communications, Millennium Challenge Account – Liberia (MCA-Liberia), has paid a two-week working visit to Ghana to familiarise himself with operations of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) and the MCA Implementing Entities in the country.
The MiDA has signed Implementing Entity Agreements (IEAs) with several organisations including the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO), the Ministry of Energy, the Bank of Ghana as well as the Lands Commission.
The MiDA was established by an Act of Parliament with the objectives to oversee, manage and implement the programmes under the Millennium Challenge Account for poverty reduction, through economic growth as set out in each agreement between the Government of Ghana and the Millennium Challenge Corporation acting for and on behalf of the Government of the United States of America and for any other national development programme of similar nature funded by the Government of Ghana, a Development Partner or both and to provide for related matters.
As part of his trip, Mr Zeon accompanied by Frank Kofi Boadi, MiDA’s Communications & Outreach Officer, held discussions with Dr Kofi Amponsah-Bediako, Director of Corporate Communications at the Ghana Standards Authority and Peter Martey Agbeko, Head of Public Relations at the Authority.
He learned about MiDA’s experiences in communicating the Compact programme and activities, with the GSA. MiDA is supporting the Authority with approximately US$5.5 million, under the MCC Compact II, for Ghana’s national standards body to undertake activities aimed at promoting energy efficiency and conservation in power use.
“It's been a real pleasure meeting with you and I thank you for the frank discussions which I believe will be mutually beneficial. On my part I'll relay the feedback from this meeting to our colleagues to help improve the programme implementation,” he said.
The funds are part of a second five-year US$498 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact, signed by the Government of Ghana and the US Government to improve the country's power sector. This entered into force in September 2016.
During his visit Zeon also met with Media and Public Relations firms in Ghana.
The MCA-Liberia is implementing a US$257 million 5-year Compact Programme to address inadequate access to reliable and affordable electricity in the country and the poor quality of road infrastructure.