Reports that the Achimota Retail Centre is ready for business and would open on Thursday have ignited a lot of anxiety and excitement among residents in communities around Accra’s latest shopping centre.

Residents in the neighbouring estates of Parakou, Ashongman, Kwabenya, Tantra Hill and even students at the campuses of the University of Ghana say they cannot wait to see the shopping centre open, as it will mark the end of cumbersome commuting to and from downtown Accra for basic shopping and decent recreation.

‘There are no decent restaurants anywhere within reach and we have had to travel all the way to depths of the capital to buy grocery and other basic domestic provisions. This mall is closer to home, it gives us a wide variety of goods to choose from and I just love its spacious parking. I can’t wait to see it open,’ said Mr. Quaison, a banker and long time resident of Atomic Hills estate.

A group of students in Legon prided themselves in having ‘two sleek malls within reach of campus’, claiming Accra Mall and the new Achimota Retail Centre as campus malls. ‘ With two malls to boot, all have to do these days is to check out where the action is really hip and the price is cool, then we will go chill out like nobody’s business,” said a level 200 student who preferred anonymity.

Achimota Retail Centre is located in Dome near the St. John’s Grammar School, off the Accra-Nsawam Highway.
The purpose of the developer, Delico Achimota Ghana Limited, was to fill in the huge void in modern retail shopping infrastructure suffered by residents of the north-eastern part of Accra over the years. From its location, Achimota Shopping Centre will serve residents in communities like Achimota, Dome, Tantra Hill, Kwabenya, Ofankor and neighbouring communities as far flung as Amasaman on the Nsawam road.

The Centre immediately provides residents with an ideal location, not just for shopping, but also for social interactions, entertainment and access to other amenities that have been lacking for quite some time in that part of Accra.

If the Ga East Municipal Assembly itself is overjoyed with the opening of the Centre, it is not only because of the sudden arrival of an aesthetically superb and modern infrastructure within its jurisdiction. The centre not only brings transformation to social and commercial life to surrounding communities, it also brings increased revenue in the form of property and other rates into the kitty of the Municipal Assembly.