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The government and Agence Francaise Developpement (AFD) have signed the second financial agreement of the District Development Facility (DDF) aimed at improving regulatory performance of metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs). The agreement was jointly signed by the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Mr Clement Kofi Humado; the French Ambassador to Ghana, Frederic Clavier, and the Resident Manager of AFD, Mr Bruno Leclerc. The DDF facility is a performance-based grant aimed at improving the ability of MMDAs to comply with the government�s regulatory requirements. It is jointly financed by the government, AFD and three other development partners � the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and KFW. Under the agreement, AFD will provide a concessional loan of 21 million euros to co-finance the DDF for a period of three years. In line with the initiative, MMDAs are given investment and capacity building grant to improve their performance on meeting regulatory requirements but the funds are not tied to specific sectors. The MMDAs are required to use the funds to finance their annual action plans, which include the provision of basic school infrastructure and sanitation facilities, markets, health facilities and boreholes and the rehabilitation of roads. A statement issued by the AFD said, �The DDF has not provided additional financial resources to the MMDAs but has resulted in the improvement of their capacity to perform their mandate�. �With just 38 per cent of the MMDAs qualifying for the DDF funds in 2008, performance of the MMDAs has consistently improved to a current level of more than 90 per cent each year,� it said.