Relocating capital from Accra will be expensive – Dan Botwe

Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Dan Botwe has downplayed calls for the relocation of Ghana’s capital.

He said adequate measures are being instituted by the government to ensure effective administration of the city.

He spoke to journalists at the Regional Ministers and Chief Directors Conference.

“Now that we have expanded services with leadership and well-trained capacity building, we should be able to deliver. I do not think the relocation of the capital city is important now because it costs so much,” Mr. Botwe said.

There have been several calls for the country’s capital to be relocated.

The Omanhene of the Agogo Traditional Area, Nana Akuoko Sarpong recently revived such calls for the relocation of Ghana’s administrative capital from Accra.

“I have spoken about this before. We can be thinking of relocating the administrative capital somewhere near Kintampo while Accra remains the commercial capital. [We can] have an administrative capital away from Accra, somewhere within the interior, near Yeji where there’s water. We must plan ahead because Accra was not planned to be a capital. Accra became a capital by accident around 1875 during King Tackie’s time because Accra is very close to the sea and is below sea level,” he said in an interview with Citi News on the sidelines of his 45th anniversary as chief of the Agogo Traditional Area.

The leader of the United Front Party, Akwasi Addai in 2019 also made a similar call.

He also suggested that the country's capital could be moved to Kintampo since it sits at the centre of Ghana.

Many others have also made their case for relocation based on reasons such as congestion and sanitation challenges.

Others have also called for the rotation of the administrative capital to ensure development across the country.

Government is yet to implement any of these suggestions.

Accra became the capital of the British Gold Coast colony in 1877 with the transfer of the seat of government of the colonial authority from Cape Coast.

---citinewsroom