Development Expert, Ebenezer Armah, has disclosed that a lot more focus and development need to be directed to the Greater Accra Region particularly with the latest figures churned out by the Ghana Statistical Service on its latest census provisional report.

On Wednesday, September, 22, 2021, provisional data from the 2021 census revealed that the Greater Accra Region has surpassed the Ashanti Region as the most populous region.

Speaking on the issue, Mr Armah noted that one of the ways the country can control the population in Accra will be to ensure balanced development across the country. He explained that adequate facilities must be provided in Accra to cater for the growing numbers.

Elaborating on the increasing population density in the capital which has spiralled into creation of slums, the development expert explained that there is the need to curb the situation as soon as possible.

“It means there is a lot of migration from other regions to Accra [and] Accra is becoming very urbanized. It also means that we must focus on making sure we have adequate facilities in Accra. However, we must also make sure that the regions have adequate facilities in terms of health, education, employment etc., so we can extend this form of migration from [Accra to other regions]. Obviously, we can’t ask people not to travel. Ghana belongs to all of us and we can live anywhere in addition to Accra.

“But, I think we need to make sure that development is equally spread around and across the entire regions in Ghana, so the people might not migrate to Accra. But what we can see is that Accra has become extremely urbanized and if they don’t have space enough, they cram [together]”.
Mr Ebenezer Armah

Additionally, Mr Armah expressed the need to concentrate on the growing number of people in Accra and consequent placement of structures which comes with migration to the capital.

He emphasized that we must “make sure that they are actually reduced or removed or properly zoned so we can have people occupying them”.

Preliminary report on regional population

According to a preliminary report by the Statistical Service, the Greater Accra Region is with a population size of 5,446,237 out of 6 million.

Greater Accra Region overtook the Ashanti Region which has been the most populous Region since 1970 and presently records 5,432,485. The least populous Region in the country is Ahafo Region which has a population size of 564,536. Also, the Ahafo Region per the report takes the place of the Upper West which was the least populous in all the previous post-independence censuses.

Per the report, the Central Region is now the fourth most populous region following the splitting of the former Western, Brong Ahafo and Northern Regions. The four most populous regions make up over half (54%) of the total population.

The Savannah and North East Regions are the second and third least populous regions respectively.