IMMEDIATE past President of Ghana, Mr. John Kufuor, has urged Nigeria to learn from the strategies adopted by the Ghanaian government in reviving its economy.

At Nigeria Britain Association - Akintola Williams Annual Lecture yesterday in Lagos, Kufuor cautioned against sacrificing the rights of Nigerians in the Federal Government's renewed efforts to reposition the economy.

He said Ghana was able to revive the economy without sacrificing the constitutional and political rights of its nationals by adopting policies with human face.

Dwelling on the policies his country adopted to accelerate the growth of his country's economy, Kufuor said: "First, government adopted the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative to stabilise the macro economy. The success of this policy secured debt forgiveness totalling $8 billion within the first four years of the government."

He added that his government pursued the restoration of infrastructure in terms of roads, energy and telecommunications, with emphasis on Information and Communications Technology (ICT), ports and water supply.

The former president said the administration also enhanced the provision of social services in terms of healthcare and education at all levels to buttress the centrality of human resource development.

"This encompasses the launch of National Health Insurance at affordable premium, which within three years covered over 56 per cent of the population of Ghana; and free and compulsory Universal Basic Education (UBE) for all children from age four to 16 at the expense of the state," he added.

Kufuor stated that the government also modernised and commercialised agriculture, which he said, engaged over 50 per cent of the population in employment and doubled the production of cocoa from 370,000 tonnes to over 700,000 tonnes yearly.

Ghana, he added, embarked on the promotion of good governance in terms of transparent and accountable government and enhanced support for law and order by improving the conditions of service and equipment of the judiciary, the police and other security agencies.

Kufuor said: "Promotion and support for the private sector by the state government cut back its borrowing internally to enhance access to credit by the operators. A Ministry of Private Sector Development, first time in the history of the country, was set up to facilitate the empowerment of the sector. Public sector reform was also launched to institute the concept of Public-Private Sector partnership as the cornerstone of socio-economic development."

He disclosed that these policies yielded positive results within a very short time as the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) quadrupled from about $4 billion to over $16 billion between 2001and 2008. "By 2006, Ghana was able to wean itself from the conditionality of the multilaterals to access the International Bond Market for the issue of $750 million which was oversubscribed to over $3 billion," he declared.

He also urged the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) under the leadership of Nigeria and Ghana to urgently fashion out policies and negotiating skills to stand its members in good stead vis a vis any concessionaires or partners they might have to deal with.

The policies, he emphasised, should also be such that the commercial, industrial and revenue benefits from the commodities will spread fairly to the entire populations of the nations involved.

This, he said, will make for peace, stability and the development of the peoples and countries in the region.

Source:Guardian

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