Millennium Challenge Corporation open to work in Ghana again - CEO

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), says it could consider working in Ghana again, but has no immediate plans to invest, particularly in the country’s energy sector, which is currently facing challenges.

Alice Albright, the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation said this at a virtual press briefing on the heels of the just ended 16th US-Africa Business Summit in Dallas, Texas.

She was responding to a question on the truncated 2019 US$190 million funding deal between the government and Power Distribution Services (PDS) under a privatization concession to invest in Ghana’s energy sector.

“We did have a compact with Ghana, and the compact is closed, and we were able to complete a fair amount of that work.  Right now, we don’t have any immediate plans to work again in Ghana.

“But we can always look again to see if Ghana may become a country that we can work with again,” she said.

Ms Albright also stated that the Corporation was working on several energy compacts across the continent, due to the sector’s critical contribution to the overall development of economies.

The development comes at a time when some sector players have called for the privatisation of Ghana’s Electricity Company (ECG) as the country contends with power outages, which are mostly due to financial constraints.

The Energy Commission, in its December 2023 Energy Outlook for Ghana, warned of irregular power outages in 2024, emphasizing the importance of the government making investments to maintain consistent gas supply.

“Security and adequacy of fuel supply to thermal plants remain the single most important risk to power supply reliability in the country,” the energy sector regulator noted.

To obtain adequate funding for ECG’s operations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has suggested that the country implement robust reforms to encourage utility service providers to recover their costs.

“Sometimes the setup of the energy sector does not provide the utilities the ability to have cost recovery from the charges that they make in order to operate profitably and efficiently and supply energy as needed,” said, Ms Catherine Pattillo, an IMF Deputy Director.

Luc Eyraud, Division Chief, African Department, IMF, also advocated for a rebalancing of tariff structures to improve cost recovery while boosting the contribution of renewable energy through private sector participation.

They said this at a press briefing earlier this month, indicating that doing so would help in the provision of reliable and sustainable power for both industry and residential use.

Meanwhile, at the recently concluded IMF/World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Washington, US, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam announced a deal with the World Bank to purchase one million modern meters to help improve revenue collection.