Kwame Nkrumah Interchange is a 3-tier interchange which was constructed to replace the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in the centre of the city of

Accra Accra (; tw, Nkran; dag, Ankara; gaa, Ga or ''Gaga'') is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , ...

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

. It opened in 2016. The interchange is named in honour of Ghana's first president,

Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah (born 21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An in ...

, who was the leading figure during the country's fight for independence from

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

. Both the current and the old edifices remain iconic landmarks of Ghana's capital city,

History

The construction of the interchange became necessary when the Kwame Nkrumah Circle, which handles over 84,000 vehicles from the arterial roads and their intersections daily. The current roads could no longer ensure effective and efficient tackling of the traffic congestion challenges. On 3 June 2015, a GOIL fuel station near the interchange exploded killing at least 150 people. The disaster was exacerbated by floodwaters which caused the fuel to spread as it floated and burned, killing additional people.

References

Accra Road interchanges in Ghana Roads in Ghana {{Africa-road-stub