FACTBOX: Ghana, built on gold, looks to future with oil

(Reuters) - Ghana's opposition leader John Atta Mills was sworn in as president on Wednesday in a democratic transfer of power that has won plaudits from around Africa and the world.

He succeeds President John Kufuor, who stepped down after serving the maximum two elected four-year terms allowed by the West African state's constitution.

Here are some facts about Ghana.

GEOGRAPHY: Area is 239,460 sq. km. (92,440 sq. miles), a bit smaller than Britain. Ghana is bordered by Burkina Faso (to the north), Ivory Coast (west), and Togo (east). The Atlantic Ocean lies to the south.

LANGUAGE: English is the official language, but local languages include Akan, Ga, Fanti, Hausa, Fanteewe, Gaadanhe, Dagbandim and Mamprussi.

POPULATION: 23 million. There are seven main ethnic groups, including the Akan (Ashanti and Fanti), 44 percent, in the mid-southern part of the country. There are Mossi-Dagomba, Ewe and Ga-Adangbe minorities, among others.

RELIGION: Christianity 50 percent, traditional African religions 32 percent, Islam 13 percent.

ECONOMY:

* World's No. 2 cocoa grower after neighboring Ivory Coast, producing around one fifth of world supply. Government plans to increase output by around half to 1 million metric tons by 2010.

* Africa's second biggest gold miner after South Africa, with 2007 output of nearly 2.5 million ounces.

* Britain's Tullow Oil and private-owned Kosmos Energy plan to start producing 120,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil offshore in late 2010, rising later to 250,000 bpd.

* Economic reforms under Kufuor's administration are credited with boosting growth and helping secure billions of dollars in debt relief.

* Economic growth forecast at 6.5 percent for 2008, slowing to 5.8 percent in 2009/10, then accelerating to 6.8 percent by 2013, according to the IMF.

* Annual inflation has eased since an 18.4 percent peak in June, and the cedi currency has stabilized after falling 17 percent against the dollar in the first seven months of 2008.

* $750 million Eurobond issue in 2007 was sub-Saharan Africa's first outside South Africa.

* Ghana's stock exchange was one of the top-performing markets in 2008 with the all-share index up around 60 percent, although trade was illiquid with as little as 600 cedis worth of trade in one session in October.