Coping with urban sprawl: A critical discussion of the urban containment strategy in a developing country city, Accra

Abstract

Accra, Ghana’s largest metropolis, exhibits unique features in terms of low densities in central locations due to large number of under-used plots, except inner-city informal residential areas. Over the last three decades, the metropolis has grown to encompass it surround district, now referred to as the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area. The massive sprawl has largely occurred in the west and east of the city, where growth rates of over 30% per annum have been recorded. This paper examines factors underlying the massive expansion of Accra, and the urban containment strategy to curtail the sprawl. It concludes that though many factors account for the sprawl, the key is the weak public control over land and the resultant poor spatial planning. As such, any urban containment strategy is unlikely to succeed within the context of the existing land management system where land is held privately under customary institutions while planning remains a public functions for local governments.