Sekondi-Takoradi
The two towns of Sekondi and Takoradi are often nicknamed the Twin City.
The two towns of Sekondi and Takoradi are often nicknamed the Twin City. Being accurate, they should be known as the triplets. Takoradi is split into two separate areas: a beachside area with hotels and restaurants, and its naughty big brother a couple of miles inland, the frantic hub of life in the city, the centrepiece of which is one of the most raucous and colourful markets in Ghana. It’s all situated an hour west of Elmina, and emerges after miles of plantations and roadside vendors (selling freshly killed or cooked savanna cane-rats, known locally as grass-cutters – around GH¢25 for lunch on the go!).
Tadi, as the city is generally known collectively, has lately entered into international consciousness because of its oil trade. Up to three billion barrels of the stuff are estimated to be off the coast here. Large-scale exploration is ongoing, and the service industry in Takoradi is bracing itself for its time as a fully-fledged boomtown. Predictions of an endless throughput of oil workers are only just coming to fruition, but there are big plans.
For sightseers, Sekondi has a Dutch fort and a colonial railway station in what is still known as ‘European Town’, but there’s little cultural heritage in Takoradi, despite it being Ghana’s fourth most populous city (445,205 – 2 estimate). Most visitors here tend to be business people, engineers and other oil workers, the upside of which is that there are some good hotels and restaurants, mostly around the quiet beachfront area. People do swim in the sea here but, as all along the coast, there’s a strong undercurrent. The beach itself is clean and uncrowded, and has options for hiring coast and sport-fishing boats – book through Captain Hook’s (Beach Road, 031 20 27085).
The difference between Takoradi’s serene beachfront and its commercial centre couldn’t be starker. At the very heart of town sits Market Circle, a disorientating frenzy of colour and noise. Lorries full of yams are unloaded, machete-wielding vendors lop off coconut-tops and a bewildering array of goods are paraded past on head-tops: sunglasses, dried fish, flip flops and colanders. Further into the centre, meanwhile, an almost exclusively female sales force hawk colourful vegetables, chilli peppers, fish and meat.
