What happened to the Trade Fair convention center project?

The potentially transformative facility, designed to host major conferences, exhibitions, and concerts, was scheduled for completion in November 2025. With work appearing to have slowed considerably, the government must tell Ghanaians when it will deliver the project.

President John Dramani Mahama’s lament this week that Accra has lost major international conferences because it lacks adequate facilities has renewed attention on a potentially game-changing national project: the Ghana Trade Fair Convention and Exhibition Centre at La, Accra.

Speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony for the Sentuo Airport Garden City project on Tuesday (15 September), Mahama said Accra had been bypassed on at least two occasions for major international conferences because the capital did not have sufficient conference facilities. At least one of the events, he said, went to Dakar instead.

But less than a year before the change of government, Ghana appeared to be close to solving precisely this problem. In November 2024, the then vice-president, Mahamudu Bawumia, inspected construction work on the new convention and exhibition center at the Ghana International Trade Fair site. He announced that the facility, publicly described as a 20,000-capacity venue that is the largest in West Africa, was scheduled for completion and handover by September 2025.

That deadline passed a year ago. The question now is, what has happened to the project, how much work remains, and when will it be completed?

Work slows after a change of government.

Although some work has continued, the intensity witnessed before the change of government does not appear to have been maintained. There has also been no clear public announcement of a revised completion date, the project’s present financing position, or the outstanding works required before the facility can open.

The government and the Ghana Trade Fair Company must therefore provide a comprehensive update on the project.

Is the original contractor still fully mobilized? What percentage of work has been completed?

What happened to the Trade Fair convention center project3