Visit Ghana 2022: general impressions

A classic Mercedes 300SL in the display of a new apartment building…

Apart from all the impressions during the meetings, it also was clear that Accra was changing rapidly. Between the visit in 2020 and now a lot was build and the city just kept expanding. The neighbourhood of Environment360, which is at the north edge of Accra was more crowded this time than what we remembered of last year. The hotel was in the city centre with a lot of good restaurants nearby and many new buildings, often semi-highrise in good quality. These new buildings made a big contrast with the slums at the edge of the city or hidden behind the big buildings next to the motorways.

One that stood out was an all white apartment building only 5 minutes walk from the hotel. Obvious this was meant for the happy few. In a beautiful designed “gate”, where the janitor would be, a huge maquette of some industrial/office area was displayed. Next to that maquette was a white Mercedes 300SL..…Although this type of wealth hardly ever improves a country, it is typical that it was there, just like the Maserati dealer we drove by on one of the last days.

On the other hand, things can also come to impressive stand-still. Two years ago we passed a highrise building at the coastline which looked abandoned. Some research learned that the investor went bankrupt a while ago. Now, that building was still there in exactly the same condition as we saw it two years ago. Why couldn’t this building be finished by somebody else? Demolishing it was too expensive? Was there still hope? Are important people involve and is a no show impossible? Who will tell?

When walking through the neighbourhood at the back of the hotel, a remarkably relaxed area in Accra, looking for a coffee bar that was tipped, we ran into a student/start-up area with all types of fresh companies and organisations and the Accra branch of the Impact Hub.