The flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has pledged to initiate a feasibility study for constructing a new city outside Accra to ease the capital’s growing congestion.

Speaking at an interaction with the European Union Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, Mr. Mahama outlined his vision for a new growth pole that would create thousands of jobs both during the construction phase and after completion.

While Accra will remain the capital, Mahama mentioned the need to decongest the city by relocating some government ministries, departments, agencies, and financial institutions to the proposed new city.

“We will start a feasibility study with a plan to build a new city,” Mr. Mahama said.  “Accra is getting grid-locked, the time has come for us to move some parts of the government services out of Accra.

Mahama envisages the future city spanning three regions—Greater Accra, Eastern, and Volta—and located near the Volta Lake. “Accra will continue to be the capital, but we will move part of it outside. There is land on the Accra Plains and there is land on the other bank of the Volta Lake and all that,” he added.

“Already, we are going to have a port terminal at Mpakadan to move cargo to the northern part of the country,” he noted. “There is a lot of land there, and we can move some of the ministries, agencies, and departments out of the city to decongest Accra.”

Mr. Mahama also acknowledged that the project would be a long-term project spanning 20 years.

“Because, Accra has expanded to its limits, the way it is going if we are not careful it will be difficult to continue to manage it as a viable city and so we will start the plan, and the design design and the feasibility. I believe that this will be a project that will take 20 years to fulfill but we need to start somewhere and so we will start and others will come to continue from where we leave off”.