Africa-Press – Mozambique. The U.S. government-funded foreign aid agency Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) announced today that it would allocate US$10 million (€9.25 million) to preparatory work for its second Mozambique support program.
“The Mozambican Government and the MCC signed an agreement on Monday in Washington that aims to strengthen the capacity of the Compact II Development Office in the identification and design of projects” to be supported by a program designed to benefit the entire country, but with a particular focus on the central province of Zambézia, a joint communiqué reads.
The final Compact II agreement, of a value still to be defined, will be signed in July, 2023, and cover a period of five years, it adds.
Mozambique has already benefited from a first MCC funding program, completed in 2013, during which the country received US$507 million (€468 million).
MCC is a US government-funded agency that provides time-limited grants to developing countries which, it says, meet “meet rigorous standards for good governance, fighting corruption and respecting democratic rights.”
For now, the US$10 million is to be spent preparing the Compact II program.
“With the funding that will be made available, the MCC and the Government of Mozambique will work to identify investment projects to reduce poverty and stimulate inclusive and sustainable economic growth and private sector investment,” Fatema Sumar, vice president of the MCC, explained after the signing.
For Mozambique, the document was signed by Minister of Economy and Finance, Max Tonela, who said the support, which will arrive from 2023 on, would cover projects “in the fields of commercial agriculture, rural transport and communications, and integrated climate and coastal development management”.
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