Staying safe in Ghana

The honest picture

Ghana is a comparatively calm place to travel, and the overwhelming majority of visitors have no security problem at all. What does happen is theft in crowds, fraud, and road accidents, and those three account for almost everything that goes wrong.

That framing matters because the fear people arrive with is usually misdirected. Visitors worry about being attacked and then get their phone lifted in a market, or lose money to a land deal arranged over WhatsApp from four thousand miles away, or spend eleven hours in a vehicle on the Kumasi road at night because the schedule slipped.

Ghanaians are, on the whole, hospitable towards strangers in a way that surprises people, and you will be helped more often than you are hassled. None of that makes you invisible. You will be read as someone with money, whether you are a first-time visitor from Germany or a Ghanaian who left for Toronto in 1996, and pricing and attention adjust accordingly.

Check your own government's current travel advice before you go, because it is updated for conditions we cannot anticipate here, and pay particular attention to anything it says about specific border areas and about the far north.

The road is the real risk

Road traffic is the most serious danger you will face in Ghana, and it is the one visitors take least seriously.

The reasons are structural rather than mysterious. Intercity roads carry fast cars, overloaded minibuses, articulated lorries and pedestrians on the same surface. Overtaking on the north road and on the Accra–Kumasi route is often optimistic. Vehicles are maintained to a very wide range of standards, and tyre condition in particular is a real problem. Livestock wander. Speed ramps appear without warning through every town.

Night is when this becomes genuinely dangerous. Many roads are unlit, some vehicles run without working lights, breakdowns are left where they stop, and pedestrians walk on the carriageway in dark clothing. A journey that is routine at eleven in the morning is a different proposition at eleven at night. If a plan involves arriving somewhere after dark on an intercity road, change the plan.

What you can control: choose a company or a driver rather than the cheapest seat, sit with a seatbelt on and use it even when nobody else does, refuse to be rushed by a driver making up time, and say something when the driving frightens you — passengers do object here and drivers do respond. Our guide to driving in Ghana goes through vehicle checks, checkpoints and what to do after an accident.

Petty theft, and exactly where it happens

Almost all theft from visitors in Ghana is opportunistic, involves no confrontation, and happens in three or four predictable situations.

Crowded markets are the main one. Makola and Kaneshie in Accra, Kejetia in Kumasi: dense, jostling, everybody pressed together, and a back pocket or an open shoulder bag is an invitation. Kwame Nkrumah Circle and the lorry parks around it have a similar reputation, particularly at night. Packed trotros are a third setting, where standing bodies and bags on laps create the same cover. And the beach, where a bag left on a towel while you swim is simply gone.

The countermeasures are dull and they work. Carry a small bag across your body and worn in front in a crowd. Take the cash you need for the day and leave the rest, along with your passport, in the hotel safe. Use a cheap phone if you have one, and keep the expensive one out of sight rather than in your hand while you walk. Do not wear jewellery you would be upset to lose. At Labadi, swim in shifts so somebody is always with the bags.

Snatch thefts from vehicles occur in stationary traffic, which in Accra means most of the evening. Keep windows up and doors locked in heavy traffic, and do not rest a phone or a handbag on the seat beside an open window at a junction like the Circle or Tetteh Quarshie.

If something is taken, report it at the nearest police station, ask for a copy of the report for your insurer, and accept that recovery is unlikely. Do not chase anybody.

Taxis, ride-hailing and the arrival gauntlet

Arrange your transport from Kotoka before you land, because the arrivals hall at four in the morning, after ten hours in the air, is where people make the decisions they regret.

Outside the terminal you will be approached by drivers, helpers and people offering to carry your bag. Most are simply working. Some will quote a fare three or four times what the journey is worth, and a few will tell you that your hotel is full, or closed, or that they know a better one — that last one is a straightforward commission scam and the answer is no.

For ordinary journeys, Bolt and Uber both work well in Accra and remove the negotiation entirely, which is worth a great deal when you are new. Check the plate matches the app before you get in, and share your trip with someone. Ordinary taxis have no meters, so agree the price before you sit down, and be aware that the first figure is an opening position rather than an insult.

Two habits protect you more than any rule. Never let a driver pick up an additional passenger you did not agree to, and never accept a lift arranged by someone who approached you rather than by you. Both of those are where the rare unpleasant incidents start.

Fraud is the bigger threat, especially from abroad

Far more money is lost by visitors and by Ghanaians abroad to fraud than to anything that happens on the street, and the biggest single category is property.

Land fraud follows a familiar pattern: a plot is sold to several buyers at once, or sold by someone with no right to sell it, or sold with documents that do not correspond to the land you were shown. The person arranging it is very often known to the family. The protection is procedural rather than personal — engage your own lawyer, not one recommended by the seller, search the title at the Lands Commission, visit the site yourself or send someone you genuinely trust, and never send money for land you have not had independently verified.

Advance-fee schemes work the same way at smaller scale: a deposit for a house that does not exist, a booking with an agent who vanishes, a container clearing fee paid to somebody who is not a clearing agent. Anyone pressing you to transfer money quickly, to a personal account, before you have seen anything, is telling you something useful about themselves.

Mobile money fraud is the day-to-day version. The common approach is a call from someone claiming to be from your network, saying a transaction failed and asking you to approve something or share a code. Networks do not ask for your PIN or your approval code. Hang up and call the operator on the number printed on their own materials.

Urgency is the tell. Every one of these frauds needs you to move faster than you think.

Romance and relationship fraud

Online romance fraud targeting foreigners is a genuine and organised problem in Ghana, and it usually ends with a request for money framed as an emergency.

The shape rarely varies. An intense online relationship builds over weeks or months with someone who cannot quite manage a video call. Then comes a hospital bill, a customs charge on a package, a visa fee, a business opportunity that needs a short-term loan, or a plane ticket to come and meet you. Photographs are borrowed from other people's social media accounts. Occasionally the person is real but the situation is manufactured.

The harder version involves someone who does fly out to meet a partner they met online and arrives without an independent plan. If you are travelling to Ghana to meet someone in person, book your own accommodation in your own name, tell someone at home where you are staying, keep your passport and return ticket in your own possession, and do not move in with anyone in the first week. These are not insults to a good relationship; a genuine partner will understand them.

If you have already sent money, stop sending more, keep every message and receipt, and report it both to the police in Ghana and to the fraud authority in your own country. The instinct to send one more payment to recover the first is the mechanism the whole thing depends on.

Police, checkpoints and officials

Police checkpoints on intercity roads are routine, and the correct approach is to slow down, greet politely, produce documents if asked, and expect to be waved on within a minute.

Carry a photocopy of your passport and visa page for daily use and leave the passport itself in your accommodation, except when you have a specific reason to have it. Officers do occasionally ask visitors for identification in towns; a copy plus the ability to say where you are staying resolves it.

The awkward subject is the request for an informal payment, which visitors encounter occasionally rather than routinely. There is no comfortable script for it. What generally works is to stay friendly, remain unhurried, ask what the offence is and whether you can be issued a ticket, and mention that you would like a receipt. Confrontation does not help and neither does open contempt. If you are with a Ghanaian driver, let him handle it; he knows the conventions and he is the one who will drive that road again next week.

Photography is the other place people get into avoidable trouble. Do not photograph military installations, the airport's security areas, police stations or government buildings, and ask before photographing individuals anywhere — particularly in Jamestown, in markets and at funerals, where a camera pointed without asking causes real offence.

The sea, the sun and the outdoors

Drowning is the outdoor risk most visitors underestimate, because the Gulf of Guinea coast has strong currents and a heavy shore break along much of its length.

There are very few lifeguarded beaches in Ghana. At Labadi, at Kokrobite and along the western beaches at Busua and Axim, the water can look inviting and pull hard. Swim where local people are swimming, stay within your depth, never swim after drinking, and treat an empty beach as a warning rather than a luxury. Rip currents pull outward, not under; if you are caught, swim parallel to the shore rather than against the pull.

Heat does quiet damage. The combination of temperature and humidity in Accra means you dehydrate faster than you register, and the classic visitor mistake is a full day of sightseeing with two bottles of water. Drink steadily, take the middle of the day out of the sun, and use sunscreen even under the Harmattan haze, which cuts glare without cutting the burn.

On foot in Accra, watch the ground. Open storm gutters run alongside many pavements, drain covers are missing in places, and pavements themselves stop and start. This is the single most common cause of injury among visitors, and it happens at night and while looking at a phone.

Health risks worth taking seriously

Malaria is the health issue most likely to affect you in Ghana, and prophylaxis plus mosquito avoidance is not optional.

Speak to a travel clinic well before departure — several weeks, not several days — about antimalarials and routine vaccinations. Ghana requires proof of yellow fever vaccination for entry and it is checked on arrival, so carry the original certificate. Use repellent in the evening, sleep under a net or in an air-conditioned room with the windows closed, and wear long sleeves after dusk when you can bear to.

Any fever during your trip or in the weeks after you get home should be tested for malaria, and you should tell the doctor you have been in West Africa. Testing is quick and widely available in Ghana, and treating early is straightforward. Our note on health and malaria in Ghana covers the practical routine in more detail.

Stomach upsets are common and mostly preventable. Drink sachet or bottled water, skip ice you are unsure about, eat at places with turnover rather than at a pot that has been sitting, and peel fruit yourself. Pharmacies are plentiful in Accra and Kumasi and pharmacists are helpful, but bring your own supply of anything you take regularly, along with the generic name of the drug.

Carry travel insurance that covers medical evacuation. The better private hospitals in Accra are good; complex care may still mean a flight, and you do not want to be arranging that without cover.

Travelling as a woman, alone, or as a returnee

Ghana is a comfortable country for solo travellers and for women travelling alone by regional standards, with the usual caveats about crowds, night travel and unwanted attention.

Women should expect a fair amount of conversational attention — comments, proposals, requests for a phone number — which is generally persistent rather than threatening and stops when firmly refused. A clear no works better than politeness. Avoid walking alone at night in unlit areas, use ride-hailing rather than street taxis after dark, and be deliberate about who knows where you are staying.

Returnees and diaspora visitors face a different version of the problem. You will be quoted higher prices, assumed to be able to pay, and drawn into financial expectations by relatives and acquaintances that are genuinely difficult to navigate. Decide before you arrive what you are prepared to give and to whom, and say it plainly and early rather than being worn down. Our piece on making a first trip back to Ghana deals with that pressure honestly.

One thing needs stating plainly rather than skirted. Sexual acts between men are criminalised under Ghanaian law and public attitudes towards same-sex relationships are conservative, including in Accra. LGBT visitors travel in Ghana, but discretion is the practical reality, and you should read your own government's travel advice on this before booking.

The habits that prevent most of it

Almost everything above is prevented by six habits that cost nothing and take no effort once they are routine.

• Do not travel intercity after dark. This one habit removes more risk than everything else combined.
• Arrange transport in advance for the airport and for anywhere you arrive tired, and agree fares before getting into an unmetered taxi.
• Carry the day's cash, not the trip's, in small notes, and leave passport and cards in the hotel safe unless you need them.
• Treat urgency as a warning sign in any request for money, whether from a stranger online, a landlord, an agent or someone claiming to be your network provider.
• Save 112 and 191, your accommodation's address written down, and your insurer's emergency line, before you need them.
• Tell someone your plan each day, especially when travelling alone or heading out of a city.

None of this requires suspicion of the people around you. Ghanaians will help you find a road, share a seat, watch your bag and walk you to where you are going, and the visitors who get the most from the country are the ones who accept that hospitality while keeping their own arrangements sensible.

How we keep clients out of trouble

Most of what Ghana Travel & Tour does on this subject is unglamorous and preventive: meeting clients inside the terminal at Kotoka so nobody has to negotiate a fare at four in the morning, using vetted drivers who do not run intercity roads at night, booking accommodation we have seen, and telling people honestly when an itinerary has an arrival time in it that we would not accept ourselves.

Airport pickups and cars with drivers are on our airport transfers and car hire page. Every quote is itemised and comes from a named trip manager you can reach directly, including while you are travelling.

Questions people ask