Senior Manager for Real Estate Financing at Absa Bank Ghana, Nana Kwadwo Boakye-Akyeampong, has called for improved infrastructure and urban development across Ghana’s cities to enhance the country’s competitiveness in attracting investment and talent.
Speaking at the Roundtable Discussion of the 2026 Citi Business Festival, themed “Building Competitive Cities: Infrastructure, Innovation and Investment for Sustainable Economic Growth,” on Monday, June 15, Mr Boakye-Akyeampong said cities across the region are competing for capital, investment, and skilled professionals.
Reflecting on a presentation delivered during the event by David Ofosu-Dorte,, he noted that Accra must be viewed within the context of competition from other cities in West Africa.
According to him, while Lagos remains a much larger city, other urban centres such as Cotonou and Abidjan are more comparable to Accra and are competing for the same pool of investment and talent.
He stressed that investors and professionals are more likely to choose cities with well-developed ecosystems, where infrastructure is reliable and properly planned.
Mr Boakye-Akyeampong explained that businesses and investors prefer locations where they can operate seamlessly without concerns about poor road networks, unreliable power supply or inefficient waste management systems.
He said Ghana must keep these factors in mind as it plans for future urban development and seeks to strengthen its position as an investment destination.
While highlighting the importance of developing Accra, he urged policymakers to broaden their focus to include other cities across the country.
He identified Kumasi and Sunyani as examples of cities with significant potential for growth and development, arguing that investments in such urban centres would help spread economic opportunities beyond the capital.
According to him, building competitive cities across the country will make Ghana more attractive to the kind of investment needed to drive economic growth and national development.
Mr Boakye-Akyeampong said a coordinated effort to improve infrastructure and urban planning in multiple cities would strengthen Ghana’s ability to compete with other countries in the region for investment and talent.
“Accra is in competition with other similar cities, right. Lagos is huge, right, but you have the likes of Cotonou and Abidjan, those are very comparable cities, right, and at the end of the day, capital, investment, talent flows into areas where there’s a developed ecosystem.
“Infrastructure is well laid out, well planned. You want to go into city work and just plug in, you don’t have to worry about your road networks, you don’t have to worry about your power infrastructure, you don’t have to worry about your waste disposal.“
“So that’s one thing we need to bear in mind as we go forward, right. How best do we develop Accra? And I’ll just say, let’s move beyond Accra.
“We have the other cities, Kumasi, Sunyani, those are other areas that we can develop to ensure that, look, Ghana as a whole becomes competitive when it comes to attracting the right sort of investment into the country.“
