President Credited in Ghana`s Growth Dies
Baku, July 25 (AZERTAC). Ghana, one of Africa`s fastest-growing economies, faced a period of transition after President John Evans Atta Mills`s sudden death Tuesday, just months before he was to face re-election.
Mr. Mills, 68 years old, died in a military hospital after falling ill Monday. Ghana`s state-owned media confirmed his death but gave no details about the cause.
An economist who ran repeatedly for office before finally winning in 2008, Mr. Mills is credited with helping transform Ghana into a business hub for West Africa and a favored destination for foreign investors. Cargill Inc., General Electric Co. and Delta Air Lines Inc. are among the multinationals that have set up operations here.
The country has long been one of Africa`s top exporters of gold, cocoa, and rubber. But in recent years, oil discoveries and a blossoming middle class have drawn waves of foreign capital, particularly from China, which signed infrastructure-related loans and other projects valued at about $15 billion in 2010.
Such investment helped make Ghana Africa`s second-fastest-growing economy last year, expanding 13.5 % from a year earlier.
The West African nation of 25 million lacks the abundant electricity of its western neighbor Ivory Coast, or the massive population of nearby Nigeria. Yet those countries lack the democratic history that has led Ghana through peaceful transitions of power, a still-rare achievement in Africa. Last year`s elections in Ivory Coast and Nigeria were both violent events, with each claiming hundreds of lives.
Vice President John Dramani Mahama was sworn into office late Tuesday, making him just the second president from Ghana`s poorer, Muslim north; the first was overthrown in a 1981 coup after less than a year in office.
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