The first Regional Compact of the Millennium Challenge Corporation will be implemented by Benin and Niger. The MCC Board of Directors, meeting in Washington at the end of September, approved this program devoted to the development of the road network between the two countries.
The Benin-Niger Regional Compact program is designed to reduce transportation costs along the corridor linking the port of Cotonou in Benin to the city of Niamey, the capital of Niger. It is indeed one of the busiest roads in the region with about 1,000 vehicles crossing per day, most of which are large trucks carrying goods from the markets.0 “By building the hard and soft infrastructure needed to lower trade barriers from Cotonou to Niamey, these two partner countries will be able to lay the foundation for rural communities and multinational trade corridors to grow much faster, create more job opportunities, and attract additional private sector investment,” said Alice Albright, MCC’s President and CEO, according to a statement from MCC’s Board of Directors sent to Afro-impact.
The board also decided that MCC will invest $504 million; $202 million from Benin and $302 million from Niger. These investments will be supported by a combined $15 million in contributions from both countries and are expected to benefit approximately 1.6 million people. This number of beneficiaries is likely to increase with the implementation of policy and institutional reforms at the border crossing, says the document.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is an independent U.S. government development assistance agency that works to reduce global poverty through economic growth. Established in 2004, MCC provides time-limited grants that combine infrastructure investments with policy and institutional reforms in countries that meet rigorous standards of good governance, anti-corruption, and respect for democratic rights.
