Greater Accra Region

Greater Accra Region wasn't Ghana's first capital, its wealthiest region, or even its most populous until recently—but political power creates its own gravity. When the British designated Accra as the Gold Coast capital in 1877, moving it from Cape Coast, they triggered a positive feedback loop that has concentrated Ghana's resources, talent, and infrastructure in one coastal strip for 148 years. By 2025, Greater Accra houses 5.5 million people at the highest density in Ghana, processes most national trade through Tema's massive port, and generates a disproportionate share of national GDP. This is competitive exclusion at geographic scale: the region that controls political decisions attracts the investments, migrant labor, and foreign capital that make it dominant, leaving other regions competing for what remains.

Accra originated as three separate European forts built between 1650-1680 by the British (Fort James), Dutch (Fort Crêvecoeur), and Danes (Fort Christiansborg), each positioned to control coastal trade with inland Akan kingdoms. The forts merged with indigenous Ga fishing villages to form a trading settlement, but Accra remained secondary to Cape Coast until British colonial administrators moved the capital in 1877, seeking better harbor access and distance from the troublesome Ashanti. That single administrative decision initiated a century of resource accumulation: colonial infrastructure (railways, roads, telegraph lines) radiated from Accra; British firms based their Gold Coast operations there; and government employment drew educated Africans seeking advancement. Cape Coast built universities; Accra built ministries and banks.

Independence in 1957 accelerated Accra's dominance. Kwame Nkrumah kept the capital at Accra and embarked on an ambitious modernization program: Tema Harbor, constructed 1954-1961, became Africa's largest artificial port; the VALCO aluminum smelter provided industrial employment; and the Akosombo Dam's cheap electricity attracted manufacturers. Between 1960-1970, industrial expansion drove rural-urban migration rates that quadrupled Accra's built-up area from 105 km² to 468 km² by 2020. Unlike federal systems where regional capitals compete, Ghana's unitary structure funnels decisions through Accra, creating a metabolic scaling effect where the capital's influence grows faster than its population. Today, Tema Harbor handles the majority of Ghana's imports and exports, making Greater Accra the chokepoint for national commerce.

The region's 5.5 million residents (18% of Ghana's population) live in the country's smallest region by area but generate outsized economic output through services, finance, manufacturing, and port logistics. Accra's metro population reached 2.8 million in 2025, with projections of 3.6 million by 2035. Like wildebeest migrating to seasonal grazing, Ghanaians from the Northern, Upper East, and Upper West regions move to Greater Accra seeking opportunities unavailable in their home areas. The pattern is self-reinforcing: each new arrival expands the consumer market, which attracts more businesses, which creates more jobs, which attracts more migrants. Ghana's 2024 GDP growth of 5.7% was concentrated in services (5.8% growth) and manufacturing (9.3% growth)—sectors disproportionately located in Greater Accra.

By 2026, Greater Accra faces the paradox of apex predators: its dominance depends on extracting talent and production from the rest of the ecosystem, but over-extraction weakens the whole. Northern Ghana's brightest students move to Accra and don't return; cocoa and gold leave Western and Ashanti regions as raw materials, get processed in Tema or Takoradi, and ship globally. The region captures value at each stage. Decentralization reforms have repeatedly failed because government ministries, corporate headquarters, and foreign embassies have no incentive to relocate from where decisions get made. Greater Accra demonstrates a biological rule: once competitive exclusion establishes a dominant organism, dislodging it requires disruption on the scale that created it—and Ghana hasn't experienced that disruption since 1957.