Why Live in Accra, Ghana
As with most countries, there will be a large variance in the cost of living between locations and between styles of life.
Accommodation in Accra is the most expensive. Some development agencies provide a rent allowance of $3,000 for a house or apartment per month, and it is not enough. Of course, you can live cheaper if you are young, healthy, flexible, and do not need to have the Western style of life. If you don’t mind living without air-conditioning, without electricity for significant parts of the day, in a neighborhood where there is going to be some noise and dust, no official security, etc., you can live relatively cheaply. Another strategy would be to share accommodation with others, dividing the rent of a three-bed apartment by three would mean that you will pay about $1,200 per month each. Unfortunately, landlords now demand at least one year of rent in advance. And certain living costs are high – electricity has gone up by 75% recently, and you may have to pay for water to be trucked to your place during the dry season. Also, you may have to pay extra for diesel for the backup generator too.
Transport in Accra – there is virtually no public transport in the Western sense. Instead, there are taxis (min costs for foreigners are going to be $2.50 and a trip of a few kilometers will be at least $5 – $8). The cheaper option is traveling by TroTro. These old vans from Europe are shipped to Ghana when they can no longer pass the safety and emissions tests in Europe. They travel predetermined routes. Cost is about 25 Cents, but you are really squashed in, and it can be difficult to find out where the TroTro you are on meets the TroTro route that you need to change to make your next change, etc. Again, this is for the young and healthy, as you are going to be so squashed in that you will get whatever airborne infection anyone else has in the van and the diesel fumes from the van and the other vehicles will not be enjoyable. But look on the bright side – with so much pollution, the mosquitoes cannot survive!
For those who are not so young and will be working in Accra, invariably get their own vehicle. It is perfectly possible for a foreigner to drive in Accra, although one has to learn the special “rules” that one is sometimes presented with by the police (such as passing through a traffic light on orange is an offense!) and one has to pay an unofficial fine. The longer you have been in town, the lower the fine as you learn to negotiate.
Walking and cycling are not very easy in Accra, as many of the streets have a narrow drainage channel along the side of the roadway and no pavement. Cycling and motorbike riding are really very dangerous on the streets of Accra – this is the reason why few attempt it.
Food in Accra: Local food is cheaper. But my experience is that it is never going to be as cheap as in some other countries. You have to be quite careful with food, especially uncooked foods, because of various diseases. I used to be carefree about food in Accra until I got typhoid.
For most Westerners, the lack of greens in the local diet can be a difficulty. I, either prepare all uncooked food at home where I use a chlorine solution to wash and soak all fruit and salad stuff, or I eat in places where they follow this regime. Otherwise, I eat only cooked food when I am out.
Going out in Accra: there are very few pubs or bars in Accra, as the local taste tends to be for restaurants. Lounges and discos at the higher end and drinking spots (local drinking places) and chop bars at the lower end. You will pay a minimum of about $1 at the very cheap places (and this price may be higher now as I generally do not frequent those places) up to $5 or more for imported beers.
All in all, Africa is expensive, especially for foreigners. And since Ghana is now an oil state, this means that all the stuff that foreigners like will be bid up in price by the number of highly paid ex-pat engineers and specialists. Too many well-paid foreigners chasing too few houses and apartments cause rents to be very high.
