The Chief Executive of Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), Martin Esson-Benjamin is describing Ghana’s qualification for a new funding from the US government’s Millennium Challenge Compact as an endorsement of the management of the first compact. The Board of Directors of the Ghanaian outfit declared last week Ghana’s eligibility to submit proposals for its second compact. Speaking to Joy Business Report, Mr Esson-Benjamin said the first compact, worth $547 million over five years, is currently in its fourth year of execution and is geared towards reducing poverty through agricultural transformation. "Ours is a very complex and ambitious compact but I can see that whenever references are being made to compacts that are being managed well, Ghana stands out as one of them. "When we are looking at the applications from various other countries for support again, Ghana emerged with Georgia as the two countries that were selected to continue to a second compact…It is a vote of confidence in the way we have managed the project on hand," he indicated. Mr Esson-Benjamin pointed out that though the government will have the final say in the allocation of the Millennium Challenge Compact funds, he is optimistic that agriculture will still take centre stage once again in the second compact as 70% of Ghana’s working population are in that sector. Source: Joy Business Report/Ghana