For years, western Accra’s shoppers drove across the city to reach a mall. On 30 October 2014, they got their own. West Hills Mall at Dunkonah, near Weija on the Accra-Cape Coast highway, opened its doors to customers, and a month later President John Mahama officially launched it.
The biggest?
The mall was promoted as the biggest one-stop retail shopping facility in West Africa. Reports put its size at around 27,500 to 27,700 square metres of shopping space. The claim was a marketing line, and later mall developments in Lagos and elsewhere challenged it, but in 2014 it signalled the scale of the project.
Why Weija
Western Accra and the corridor towards Kasoa had grown rapidly, with large residential areas and many commuters. Before West Hills, residents had to travel to Accra Mall near Tetteh Quarshie or to central Accra for big supermarket shopping. The developers saw an underserved market.
The tenants
The mall’s anchor tenants included Shoprite, the South African supermarket chain. It also housed fashion stores, electronics retailers, banks, restaurants, a food court and a cinema.
Ownership
Reports have described the mall as owned by a property developer in partnership with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust, which invests pension funds in property. SSNIT’s investments in malls and hotels have attracted public scrutiny over the years.
Changing retail
Since 2014, Accra’s retail market has changed. Online shopping, delivery apps and the cedi’s depreciation have affected mall traffic. Shoprite sold its Ghana operations in 2021, part of its exit from several African markets, and the stores were taken over by new owners.
A community space
For many families in Weija, Kasoa, Mallam and Dansoman, the mall became a weekend outing spot. Teenagers meet at the food court, families visit the cinema and couples take photos at the entrance.
Traffic
The mall’s location on the busy Accra-Cape Coast highway brought congestion. Weekend traffic around Weija junction can be heavy, especially during holiday seasons.
The mall era in Accra
West Hills was part of a wave of shopping centres built in Accra after Accra Mall opened near Tetteh Quarshie in 2008. Achimota Mall, Junction Mall at Nungua and the Marina Mall near the airport followed. Developers were betting on a growing middle class with money to spend on imported goods, cinemas and restaurants. Traditional markets remained far bigger in total trade, but malls changed where many Accra families did their weekend shopping and gave the city a new kind of public space, cool, air-conditioned and guarded.
West Hills Mall promised western Accra the same shopping experience as the rest of the city. A decade later, it is one more sign of how far the capital has spread west, and how many people now live there.
