Accra, Feb. 22, GNA - The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) is= on course to fully exhaust the entire programme budget of 547 million dollar= s within the five-year period, the Authority said in a statement on Monday. Mr Martin Eson-Benjamin, Chief Executive Officer of MiDA, said the authority had at the end of 2009, committed 67 per cent of Compact Funds (367 million dollars) and re-disbursed 23 per cent (127 million dollar) through the Bank of Ghana.

Mr Eson-Benjamin was speaking at a press soiree organised to mark th= e third anniversary of MiDA and the entry into force of the Millennium Challenge Compact, Ghana programme in Accra. He gave an update on the status of the programme under the three thematic areas - agricultural productivity and value-added development project (six projects); transformation infrastructure development project=

(three projects) and rural services development project (three project activities).

Mr Eson-Benjamin revealed that 47,000 farmers had received free technical and business skills training and inputs as "starter packs". He enumerated several other initiatives in irrigation development an= d land tenure facilitation that were transforming the face of agriculture i= n the intervention zones in the Northern Region, the Afram Basin and the beneficiary districts in the Central, Eastern, Greater Accra and the Volt= a Regions. Mr Eson-Benjamin also spoke about the progress of work on a number o= f sub-projects under the transportation project, such as 14.1 km N1 Highway= - Tetteh Quarshie-Mallam Highway - and other trunk and feeder roads in all the intervention zones, ferries, ferry terminals and the rehabilitation of th= e floating dock at Akosombo. On the rural services development leg of the programme, Mr Eson-Benjamin spoke about the building and rehabilitation of schools, provision of water and the construction of 230 kms of power lines to conn= ect several rural communities.

The statement said under this component, MiDA was assisting several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to build their capacity to provide more efficient services. One key project under the component is that of the financial service= s, which involves collaboration with the Bank of Ghana, the ARB Apex Bank an= d 121 rural banks to extend the depth and value of financial services to ru= ral Ghana.