Solving The Congestion Conundrum Removing Capital From Accra Is Not The Answer -KNUT Don

A Senior Lecturer at the Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Stephen Appiah Takyi, has cautioned that creating a new capital city is not a long-term solution to the growing congestion in Accra.

“Relocating a capital city without addressing the root causes of congestion simply shifts the problem to a new location,” Dr. Stephen Takyi said, citing Nigeria’s experience with Abuja, which continues to face traffic and infrastructural challenges despite being a newly planned city.

During the 2024 General Elections, President John Dramani Mahama proposed to establish a “Green Digital City” to serve as a secondary administrative and commercial hub, intended to decongest Accra.

While Accra would remain the official capital, President Mahama suggested relocating select government ministries and agencies to the new city.

According to him, the envisioned city could span parts of Greater Accra, Eastern and Volta regions near the Volta Lake.

He envisions it as a green, digital metropolis featuring industrial parks, financial services, and tourist attractions operating as a 24-hour economy.

Despite these proposals, Dr. Stephen Takyi warned that moving government functions without structural reforms and strategic redistribution of services may merely relocate Accra’s problems, rather than solve them.

Is Accra Truly Overpopulated?

Dr. Stephen Takyi disputes the notion that Accra’s congestion is primarily due to overpopulation.

“When you compare Accra or Kumasi to global megacities like Tokyo, Shanghai or New York, it is difficult to describe our cities as overpopulated,” he said. He added that cities fail not because of their population size, but due to poor planning and weak governance.

“Cities are deliberately designed systems. When they fail, it is usually because planning principles are ignored or poorly enforced,” he explained.

Unmanaged Growth and Urban Disorder

According to Dr. Stephen Takyi, decades of uncontrolled urban expansion have contributed significantly to Accra’s congestion.

“Our cities have grown organically, without strict zoning, strong regulation or long-term spatial vision. When growth is unmanaged, disorder is inevitable.”

He noted that effective cities are guided by principles such as efficiency, sustainability, land-use control, and integrated transport.

When these principles collapse, congestion, urban sprawl, and infrastructural strain quickly follow.

According to him, Nigeria built Abuja from scratch, yet it is already experiencing congestion because the same planning logic that overwhelmed Lagos was never dismantled.

Accra as a Multifunctional Capital

A key challenge, Dr. Takyi explained, is that Accra is a multifunctional capital. Unlike cities that serve primarily political functions, such as Ottawa, Accra simultaneously hosts political, commercial, educational, entertainment, military, religious, and diplomatic activities.“When all these roles are concentrated in one city, congestion is unavoidable,” he argued.

Structural Roots of Congestion

Dr. Takyi stressed that Accra’s congestion is a physical expression of deeper national planning failures. Ministries, state agencies, military installations, corporate headquarters, and religious institutions are heavily concentrated in the capital. For example, the Burma Camp alone houses between 30,000 and 50,000 people, effectively operating as a city within a city.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is also disproportionately concentrated in Accra. “About 86 percent of FDI entering Ghana is concentrated in Accra,” Dr. Takyi noted adding “Jobs, wealth creation, and services follow investment. Congestion is, therefore, a planning problem, not an engineering one.”

The ‘Accralisation’ of Ghana

Dr Takyi described Ghana’s development pattern as the gradual “Accralisation” of the national economy, where governance, finance, religion, culture, and opportunity are increasingly concentrated in the capital.

He questioned why key national institutions remain headquartered in Accra. “What is COCOBOD doing in Accra when cocoa is not produced there? Why is GNPC in Accra? Why are almost all major corporate and religious headquarters located in one city?”

Such concentration, he argued, deprives other regions of growth and relevance, reinforcing regional imbalances and overburdening Accra.

Rather than relocating the capital, Dr. Takyi advocates functional decentralisation. “The solution is to redefine Accra as a political capital and deliberately distribute other national functions across regional capitals,” he said.

Under this model: he suggested that Kumasi could serve as the commercial hub, as Tamale could host military headquarters. He proposed that Sunyani could become an entertainment and cultural center, adding that other cities could focus on sports, education, or industrial development.

“This approach reduces pressure on Accra while promoting spatial equity and balanced national development,” Dr. Takyi explained.

Urban Renewal Over Relocation

Dr. Stephen Takyi maintains that urban renewal combined with strategic redistribution of opportunity offers a more sustainable solution than building a new city.

“I have never supported capital relocation as a solution to congestion. Urban renewal and functional decentralisation are far more effective,” he said.

He stressed that Ghana already had the urban foundation needed for reform; what is missing is political will and coordinated planning.

Dr. Stephen Takyi urged policymakers to rely on research rather than political symbolism. “These views are based on academic research, including my own published work, not conjecture,” he said.

He warned that unless Ghana carefully defines the type of capital it intends to create, congestion will persist. “If the new city becomes another multifunctional capital like Accra, congestion will simply reappear,” he noted.

“The real question is not whether Ghana should build a new city. It is whether we are willing to change how we plan, distribute opportunity, and define the role of our cities. Without that shift, congestion will follow wherever the capital goes,” Dr. Stephen Takyi concluded.

 

 

 

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