Kufuor, President John
President of Ghana (2001-2009)
Chair of the African Union (2007-2008)
President of Ghana (2001-2009)
Chair of the African Union (2007-2008)
President John Agyekum Kufuor served as President of the Republic of Ghana from 2002 to 2009, and Chairperson of the African Union from 2007 to 2008.
Under President Kufuor’s leadership, Ghana experienced its first peaceful democratic transition, and made important advancements in modernizing agriculture, improving infrastructure, and increasing Ghana's attractiveness for foreign direct investment. The President’s policy initiatives focused particularly on leveraging indigenous capital by encouraging entrepreneurship, promoting good governance, and combating corruption. A testament to his commitment to aid Ghana’s poor, the President secured a $547 million grant from the U.S. Millennium Challenge Account for poverty alleviation programs, and was an active partner of the President’s Malaria Initiative sponsored by the Bush Administration.
However, President Kufuor made his most important impact through his work as the Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States. He helped integrate the economies of the 17 member organizations, and successfully mediated civil strife in the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia. As Chairman of the African Union, the continental body of 54 countries, President Kufuor led a structural reformation of the organization and set up a preventive war mechanism with the help of the European Union, the United States and others.
Since his retirement from the Presidency, President Kufuor has been appointed by the World Bank as a Commissioner to help with the reformation of the Bank, and by the World Food Program of the United Nations as an Ambassador against Hunger.
President Kufuor is a graduate of Oxford University, where he studied politics, philosophy and economics.
