Ghana to Compensate Businesses Hit by La Pleasure Beach Demolition

The Deputy Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Naa Odoley Sowah, has said a committee is expected to be set up by early next week to decide how people whose businesses and properties were affected by the recent demolition at La Pleasure Beach in Accra should be compensated.

The committee, she said, will include representatives of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), the La Dadekotopon Municipal Assembly (LaDMA), traditional authorities and the management of the affected beaches. Mrs Sowah, who is the Member of Parliament for La Dadekotopon, will also sit on the committee.

She announced this when she appeared before Parliament's Committee on Local Government and Decentralisation on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, and said data on the displaced persons had already been collected. “We have gotten their data, and the committee is going to look at what we are going to give to them as compensation,” she said, adding that the type of compensation had not been finalised.

She said the committee would also consider the needs of those who may have to be relocated as well as those who may need financial compensation, and stressed that the La Pleasure Beach exercise was separate from the demolition at Laboma, which she said would be handled under a different arrangement.

Briefing the committee on Laboma, the Municipal Chief Executive of LaDMA, Alfredos Nii Anyetei, said the exercise was carried out to tackle flooding and restore an ecological site, adding that the assembly was not consulted but was only shown the affected locations during a meeting. The committee's chairperson, Queenstar Pokua Sawyerr, said LaDMA has the mandate and technical staff to monitor developments and protect waterways, and urged it to tighten enforcement to stop people from refilling areas cleared to improve drainage.