Savelugu (NR), Oct.4, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Wednesday launched the zonal Millennium Challenge Account Programme for Northern Ghana at Savelugu in the Savelugu/Nanton District and urged beneficiaries to use the fund for the development of their communities. He said: "The fund is not a handout.

"The fund is for investment and must be used judiciously and with a high sense of responsibility".

President Kufuor urged the beneficiaries to endeavour to repay the credit extended to them to enable other regions and people to also benefit from the facility.

The MCA is a United States government's reward to countries that rule justly, invest in their people and promote private sector development, he said.

Ghana signed the MCA compact on August 1, 2006, paving the way for the country to access a US grant of 547 million dollars spread over a five-year period.

Some 23 districts, five from the Northern Region -- Tamale Metropolis, Savelugu/Nanton, Tolon/Kumbungu, Karaga and West Mamprusi, are to benefit from the facility.

President Kufuor urged people in the Northern Region to let the launch of the MCA galvanise and reinforce the efforts so far made to enable the region to set the pace for the transformation of the country's agriculture and the quality of life.

He said farmers and citizens of the area should therefore, accept it as a challenge to help the programme to succeed, adding: "The youth especially, must take advantage of the opportunities coming with the MCA".

"It is the only way to generate and spread wealth", he said, urging the youth for their active participation to enhance agriculture production.

President Kufuor said he was certain that the MCA would contribute to the rapid transformation of the country's economy, thereby helping to alleviate poverty and bringing hope to many individuals and their families.

He mentioned good governance, a general state of poverty, investment potentials and support for the private sector as some of the criteria used in identifying the beneficiary districts and so people should not read politics or ethnicity into the selection of those districts.