Moving to Accra is not hard. Moving to Accra efficiently is hard, because almost everything depends on something else, and nobody tells you the order.
You cannot open a bank account without a Ghana Card. You cannot get a Ghana Card without proving where you live. You cannot rent a place without a year of rent in cash. And the office that solves each of these closes at 4pm and reopens as a completely different queue.
This guide is the order.
Before you arrive
Check whether you need a visa
Ghana has been steadily opening its borders. Citizens of ECOWAS member states can enter without a visa. Since 2025, Ghana has extended visa-free entry to citizens of all African countries. Everyone else needs a visa, or a visa on arrival if they qualify.
Your passport must have room
Ghana Immigration wants at least six months validity and blank pages. A passport that is technically valid but full will get you turned around at Kotoka, which is an expensive way to learn this.
Bring cash, and expect to need more than you planned
The single largest expense of arriving in Accra is not the flight. It is the rent advance: landlords routinely ask for 12 months of rent before handing over keys, and sometimes two years.
On a mid-range one-bedroom at ₵2,500 a month, that is ₵30,000 due on the day you sign. Plus the agent’s commission, usually one month.
You may bring up to $10,000 in foreign currency without declaring it. Above that, declare it at the airport, or you risk having it seized.
Book somewhere short-term first
Do not sign a lease from abroad. Photographs lie, neighbourhoods do not appear on a map, and you cannot tell whether a road floods until you have seen the gutters.
Book a month in a short-let, an Airbnb or a guesthouse, and use that month to look properly.
Your first week
Here is what to do, in order. Each of these unlocks the next.
- Get a local SIM card. You need a Ghanaian number for absolutely everything else. Bring your passport; SIM registration is tied to identity documents. — How
- Set up MoMo. Mobile money is not a convenience in Ghana, it is the payment system. You will use it for rent, trotro fares, market traders and paying your barber. — How
- Get your GhanaPostGPS digital address. Accra has street names but almost nobody uses them. The digital address is what banks, couriers and forms actually want. — How
- Register for a Ghana Card. Everything downstream needs it, including your tax number. Start early; it takes time. — How
- Open a bank account. Once you have the Ghana Card and a digital address, this becomes straightforward. — How
Finding somewhere to live
This is the part that takes longest and costs most.
Accra is enormous, spread out, and the traffic is unforgiving. A house that is seven kilometres from your office can be a ninety-minute commute at 7am. Where you live matters more here than the house itself.
Where to live in Accra How to find a place Understanding the rent advance
Before you hand over any money, read the housing and land scams guide. The most common way to lose a large sum in Accra is to pay advance rent to somebody who does not own the property.
Sorting out money
Mobile money first, bank second
Almost every Ghanaian transaction that is not cash runs on MoMo. Wallets are held with MTN, Telecel or AT, and they interoperate. A verified wallet holds up to ₵50,000.
The E-Levy that used to tax these transfers was repealed in 2025, so sending money no longer costs you a percentage of it in tax.
Then a bank account
Ghanaian banks want the Ghana Card, a digital address, and often a reference. It is slower than mobile money and considerably more useful once you need salary payments, loans or foreign transfers.
Understand what comes off your salary
If you are employed, your payslip has two big deductions: SSNIT at 5.5% of basic salary, and PAYE income tax on what is left. The first ₵490 a month is tax free; above that it climbs in bands to 35%.
Income tax and PAYE Work out your take-home pay
Health
Register for the NHIS. It is inexpensive — renewal runs about ₵25 to ₵50 a year — and it covers a genuinely useful list of conditions at public facilities.
The catch: a new membership takes 90 days to activate. Register before you need it, not when you need it.
Most people in Accra who can afford it run NHIS alongside private cover or simply pay cash at private clinics, because the queues at public hospitals are long and the drug supply is unreliable.
NHIS and health insurance Hospitals and clinics in Accra Malaria and staying healthy
Getting around
Learn the trotro system if you can. It is by far the cheapest way to move — ₵2.50 for a short hop — and the network reaches places no app will take you.
Ride-hailing (Bolt, Uber, Yango) is the default for anyone with money and a deadline. An okada is fastest and least safe, and commercial motorcycle taxis remain technically prohibited.
Getting around Accra Driving in Accra
Things that will surprise you
The power goes off. Not always, not everywhere, but often enough that the word dumsor exists. Prepaid ECG meters run out at inconvenient hours. Keep credit topped up and a torch charged. — Electricity and dumsor
The water goes off too. Many areas ration. A polytank on the roof is not paranoia, it is standard equipment. — Water in Accra
Funerals are a major social and financial obligation. They are large, public, expensive, and skipping one has consequences for a relationship in a way that skipping a wedding does not. — Funerals and social obligations
Nobody uses street addresses. Directions are given by landmark: the third junction after the Shell station, opposite the blue kiosk. Learn the landmarks near your house, because you will recite them constantly.
English is the official language, but not the social one. You will get by entirely in English. You will be treated differently the moment you can greet someone in Twi or Ga. — Learning Twi and Ga
If you are staying long term
- Residence permit. A visa lets you enter; a residence permit lets you stay. — Residence permits
- Work permit. Separate from the residence permit, and usually obtained by your employer. — Work permits
- Right of Abode. If you are of African descent in the diaspora, you may qualify for indefinite residence without going through the normal route. — The Right of Abode
- Citizenship. Naturalisation normally requires 5 years of residence. — Ghanaian citizenship
Akwaaba
The word you will hear most in your first week is akwaaba — welcome. It is said constantly, and mostly meant.
Accra will test your patience with bureaucracy, traffic and the third trip to an office that could have been one. It will also feed you well, and people will help you for no reason at all.