Clearing the La Coast
Two beaches, and the country around them
Structures on two Accra beachfronts came down in September and October 2026. Who was affected, what Ghana is building and what living costs now.
In the early hours of Friday, 2 October 2026, personnel from the 48 Engineer Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Police Service carried out a removal exercise on the La coast, Graphic Online reported. According to the Coalition of La Associations (COLA), the operation at La Pleasure Beach and the adjoining beachfront affected restaurants, bars and other businesses.
It was the second of two demolitions COLA's statement records. The first was at Laboma Beach on 13 September 2026. The statement was copied to the Ghana News Agency.
Graphic Online reports that the Laboma operation was one of a series by the Post-Flood Mitigating Task Force. The series also covered Boundary Road in East Legon and Oyarifa, and focused on desilting, dredging and removing structures that block waterways. According to YEN, police and military personnel had already been stationed at Laboma Beach more than a month before the operation, after the floods of 29 June.
Laboma's PRO, Nathaniel Nettey, spoke to the Daily Graphic. "Over 3,000 people work here. Yes, it's not every structure that has been demolished."
At La Pleasure Beach, COLA cites figures from the Ghana Tourism Federation. Eighty-five businesses were affected. About 4,000 jobs were put at risk. Many of those jobs, the coalition says, belong to women.
COLA also raised the question of notice. It said some operators at La Pleasure Beach had reportedly been given little time to retrieve their belongings, and that others had questioned whether the notice they received was adequate.
On compensation, COLA welcomed the announcement of a proposed committee to assess compensation for people affected at La Pleasure Beach. It insisted that affected businesses at Laboma Beach Resort must also be included. In the statement reported by Ghana Business News on 29 October 2026, the coalition gave the relevant authorities seven days to provide a meaningful response. It warned of petitions, peaceful demonstrations and legal action.
The state's stated purpose at Laboma, as Graphic Online reports it, is flood mitigation: clearing structures from waterways after the June floods. The coalition's statement also speaks to something wider than the two beaches. "We are not asking government to abandon development. We are asking government not to abandon its people in the name of development," it said.
Start with development: what is being built. The Finance Minister allocated GH¢30 billion to the Big Push Infrastructure Programme in the 2026 Budget, which was presented to Parliament in November 2025, the Ghana News Agency reported. The money is for road and bridge projects across the country. The Ministry of Roads and Highways lists 77 Big Push projects under execution, with status as of March 2026. Of these, 23 were continued from the previous government and 54 are new awards.
The largest single promise is the planned Accra–Kumasi Expressway. In the budget as GNA reported it, the minister said the road would cut the distance between the two cities from 250 km to 198.7 km and halve travel time. He also said it was expected to cut transport costs by nearly 40 per cent and to create over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs during construction. Both figures are government projections for a road that is still planned. The same budget set aside GH¢828 million for 1,000 km of agricultural enclave roads, which the minister said were meant to reduce food inflation.
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, the Finance Minister, put the purpose plainly: "The Big Push is ultimately about people, making it easier for farmers to reach markets, workers to reach jobs, and families to travel safely and affordably."
Visitors are the second part of the building story. MyJoyOnline reported the 2025 Ghana Tourism Report on 11 June 2026. Arrivals rose in 2025. Receipts fell.
| Ghana tourism (2025 Ghana Tourism Report, via MyJoyOnline, 11 June 2026) | 2024 | 2025 | |---|---|---| | International tourist arrivals | 1,288,804 | 1,306,962 (+1.4%) | | International tourism receipts | $4.83 billion | $4.34 billion (−10.14%) | | December international arrivals | 126,791 | 141,186 (+11.35%) | | Licensed tourism enterprises | 6,702 | 7,109 |
December carries its own weight in those figures. MyJoyOnline says that "December in GH" emerged from the success of the Year of Return and Beyond the Return initiatives, and that it draws diaspora visitors for concerts, festivals and heritage tourism.
Now the people's side of the ledger: what living costs. The Ghana Statistical Service's September 2026 figures, reported by Graphic Online on 7 October 2026, show a headline rate that is low next to a year ago. Inside it, some prices are climbing fast.
| Prices in Ghana, September 2026 (Ghana Statistical Service, via Graphic Online, 7 October 2026) | Rate | |---|---| | Headline inflation, September 2026 | 5.2% | | Headline inflation, August 2026 | 5.0% | | Headline inflation, September 2025 | 9.4% | | Food inflation, September 2026 (August: 3.0%) | 4.0% | | Services inflation | 8.3% | | Goods inflation | 4.2% | | Housing, water, electricity and gas | 10.3% | | Fresh tomatoes, year on year | 153.4% |
Read one way, the figures are good news. The Government Statistician said inflation remained below the lower bound of the Bank of Ghana's medium-term target band of 8 per cent, plus or minus 2 percentage points. The September rate was 4.2 percentage points lower than a year earlier.
Read another way, the figures show where households feel the pressure. Services inflation, at 8.3 per cent, was nearly twice the rate for goods. Housing, water, electricity and gas recorded the highest inflation of any spending division, at 10.3 per cent. The largest price drivers for the month were fresh tomatoes, rent payments, ginger, cooked rice, bus and trotro fares, yam and imported beer. After tomatoes, the steepest year-on-year rises were ginger at 100.4 per cent and shrimps at 62.8 per cent.
The pressure is not spread evenly. Regional rates ran from −0.5 per cent in the Western Region to 9.8 per cent in Ashanti. Ashanti and Greater Accra together contributed 56.6 per cent of the national rate.
Back on the La coast, the coalition has welcomed a proposed committee to assess compensation for people affected at La Pleasure Beach. It insisted that affected businesses at Laboma Beach Resort must also be included.
“We are not asking government to abandon development. We are asking government not to abandon its people in the name of development.”
- Graphic Online: Ghana's inflation rises to 5.2% in September 2026
- MyJoyOnline: International tourism receipts fall 10.14% despite rise in arrivals in 2025
- Ministry of Roads and Highways: Big Push Infrastructure Programme
- Ghana News Agency: GH¢30 billion earmarked for Big Push infrastructure
- Ghana Business News (GNA): Coalition demands compensation for Laboma, La Pleasure Beach demolition victims
- YEN: From Laboma to La Pleasure, beaches and businesses affected by Accra demolitions
- Graphic Online: Laboma Beach structures demolished to restore natural water flow
