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The newly appointed board of the Millennium Development Authority was sworn in by the president of the republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on June 7, 2023, in Accra.
The new board will serve as the Coordinating entity for the Economic Enclaves Project after the Ghana Power Compact was completed and the previous board’s term of office expired in October of last year. It is anticipated that the new board will adopt and adhere to the same systematic approaches to project management that characterized the implementation of the Compact projects.
The board is led by renowned Ghanaian zoologist Prof. Yaa Ntiamoa Baidoo and includes Mr. Martin Esson Benjamin, MiDA’s chief executive officer, Ken Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, Ministers for Finance, Food and Agriculture, Local Government, Decentralization, and Rural Development, Hon. Dan Botwe, Gender, Children, and Social Protection, Hon. Abudu Lariba Zuweira, and MiDA.
The other three are Osei Assibey Antwi of the National Service Secretariat, Dr. Kwasi Humphrey Ayim-Dake of the Association of Ghana Industries, and Mr. Mark Adu Aboagye of the Private Enterprise Foundation.
According to President Akufo-Addo, from its founding under the administration of HE John Agyekum Kufuor, the second President of the Fourth Republic, MiDA has distinguished itself to the admiration of all well-meaning individuals and has carried out its responsibilities properly.
He went on to say that the Ministry of Finance chose MiDA to take over the implementation phase and to coordinate all the activities related to the Economic Enclaves component because of this, adding that “the Minister’s decision is in recognition of MiDA’s track record in effective programme management and in its capacity to handle the related accountabilities.” MiDA conceptualized and nurtured the Ghana Cares Obaatanpa program since 2020.
He noted that “once the quantum of the budget earmarked for the Economic Enclaves Project CEEP), and the related funding arrangement is vastly different from those of the two Millennium Challenge Compacts implemented by MiDA in February 2007 to Febraury 2012, and from September 2016 to June 2022 respectively, the expectation is that all the implementating entities will work speedily and in harmony to realise the outputs expected from the novel Agriculture focused Economic Enclaves to be set up across the country.”
President Akufo-Addo was confident in the Board’s ability to “ensure speedy access to needed inputs and the employment of best practices by all participants during the term of the Economic Enclaves Project. It is also my expectation that the decision to involve and highlight the participation of private sector investors in activities within the enclaves will ensure its sustainability.”
With the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme and the National Service Secretariat facilitating the recruitment of youth to participate, he emphasised that, “this new approach to state sponsored large scale commercial farming is not fashioned out of the erstwhile State Farms concept. You the MiDA board must ensure that the necessary de-risking and facilitative arrangements.”
“The involvement of the 48 Engineer Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces, in land preparation and development, the lead role of the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority, in land surveys and provision of irrigation infrastructure, the supportive role of the Ministries of Energy and Road and Highways, the provision of Agricultural equipment and certified seeds, from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and its agencies, are compelling evidence of the strong desire to facilitate the work of private sector investors and the youth and also to underpin the sustainability of the enclaves concept.”
Concluding he pointed out that, whilst encouragement of our youth to join in and play meaningful roles in commercial farming will culminate is a group of young farmers with the capacity to undertake modern farming on a sustainable basis, I’m pleased to mention that under this novel EEP, government is facilitating the availability of suitable and well-prepared land, fitted with farm roads, power supply, irrigated water, some farming equipment and much needed infrastructure for trainee farmers’ accommodation, grain processing, input and equipment storage, and ware housing.”
Source: Ghanatodayonline.com
