125 things to do in Accra and Ghana - markets

The Accra Green Market is Ghana's first 100% local and organic farmer's market. The market links small farmers who use sustainable agriculture practices with consumers in a friendly community gathering. The aim of the community is to promote a healthy lifestyle and to grow produce sustainably. Typical items for sale include herbs, seeds to plant at home, hot peppers, handmade tinctures and oils, fresh fruit, jams and preserves.

This two-day celebration brings the best chefs, the finest Ghanaian cooking and people who love food together for an enjoyable weekend. See traditional dishes cooked alongside contemporary inspirations. Ingredients you are fond of and some you've never thought about making for creative cooking and tasty family meals. The festival is, of course, all about food, but there are also live bands, dance troupes, shopping, handmade items to browse and entertainment for the kids. 

The loosely defined borders of Makola Market enclose what might be seen as Accra’s most dynamic commercial hub. It’s certainly one of the most entertaining. Hot, noisy and insistent, it’s an initially bewildering sprawl of kitchenware, jewellery, textiles, shoes and anything else your cedi might conceivably buy, hawked from floors, racks, shelves, ceilings and head-perched baskets. Evangelical bands play on stairwells, clothes-filled alleys channel you down dead-ends, sea snails fill plastic buckets and rainbows of peppers lie in towering heaps. Forget the camera; it’s best to just slip into the flow and enjoy it for what it is – a colourful open-air department store spread over several blocks.

Kaneshie Market is on the road leading west out of Accra. In character, it’s very much like Makola Market – a sprawling chaos of stalls, shops and street vendors. Everything you could possibly imagine can be bought here. It’s also an important transport hub, with tro tros and regional buses picking up and dropping off passengers. However, if you’re keen to see a market purely for the experience (and it really is an experience), Makola is more accessible.

The Accra Goods Market is a lovely local shopping experience where you can buy clothes, leather goods and other handmade items. Here you can chat with the young and stylish, shop till you drop or just chill out at the food stalls until the sun goes down. A tremendous place for food, fashion, and lifestyle gifts, the market is set up for entrepreneurs to showcase their new products, and it attracts a good crowd of shoppers after unique items and gifts. It is a vibrant and loud place where shouting and bargaining is part and parcel of the terrain, so not ideal for small children.

Buying local and eating fresh has become a global trend, especially in the bigger cities. As a country with a long history of farming, the road from soil to city shouldn't be long in Ghana. The popular home delivery veg box service Urbanbox now has its own weekly market in Dzorwulu, where visitors are free to browse around and buy veggies, herbs, snacks and the rest, knowing the produce is sustainable and fresh. It is a lovely way to spend the day, tasting samples of local products like Ghanaian coffee (worth it alone), sausages, juice and fruits. A few convenience products, such as coconut oil and local black soap, can also be found at the market and online.