Accra, Aug. 15, GNA - The 547.9 million-dollar grant from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) would not blot the nation's economic woes, but it holds the potential of transforming the lives of the rural poor, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said on Tuesday.

"The MCA will not solve all our problems. It is meant to spur us on. After the MCA, we as a people should be working four to five times more to turn things around," he said in his contribution to a discussion on the Millennium Challenge Ghana Programme presented to the media by Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, Chairman of the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) in Accra.

The Finance and Economic Planning Minister said the grant would be utilized adequately for the set objectives in the Compact. "None of it would find its way elsewhere. We assure you that the funds as you see would be used judiciously."

The MCA grant would be released in tranches with the 2006 figure pegged at 311 million dollars.

He urged Ghanaians to trust government to handle the MCA Compact as stated.

Mr Baah-Wiredu pleaded with MiDA to make the Compact available to everybody, "so that we can all hold each other accountable and pick on the targets as we achieve them each year of the five-year life span of the programme."
Dr Nduom said the advent of the MCA would not see the end of all Ghana's problems and called for extensive collaboration between government, Ministries, Departments and Agencies and multilateral development partners.
Dr Nduom promised an educational programme to enlighten the media and the public on the MCA and the Compact in the various outreach programmes with the districts.
The programme would boost Ghana's rural housing infrastructure offering a number of housing opportunities where model villages would be built in beneficiary districts with utility and social infrastructure.