Accra shops on three levels at once: Makola's wholesale aisles, Kantamanto's mountain of secondhand bales, and Osu concept stores selling hand-woven kente at Paris prices. This route runs from market queens to design studios, with the artisan compounds in between.
Accra's trading engine since the 1920s, run almost entirely by market queens who set prices for whole product lines. Aisles of wax print by the half-piece, enamelware, black soap and raw shea. Traders open around 06:00 and thin out by 18:00.
The world's largest secondhand clothing market, absorbing roughly 15 million imported garments a week under the name obroni wawu — dead white man's clothes. Bale-openers, tailors and dyers work side by side in the covered lanes.
A walled compound of roughly 200 stalls behind the Independence Arch: kente strips, adinkra stamps carved from calabash, Ashanti stools, djembes and lost-wax bronze castings. Carvers work in the open at the back of the site.
Oxford Street runs about a kilometre from Danquah Circle toward the coast — fabric shops, sandal makers cutting to measure, bead sellers and phone stalls. After 18:00 the pavement market fills with grilled tilapia and kelewele carts.
Aisha Ayensu's label, founded in 2008 and shown at Arise and Lagos fashion weeks, builds structured womenswear from Ghanaian wax print and hand-woven kente. The Osu flagship carries ready-to-wear alongside made-to-measure.
A concept store on Ring Road East stocking roughly 40 African designers — Nigerian labels like Orange Culture beside Ghanaian jewellery, leather and homeware — with a shaded courtyard café attached. Tuesday to Saturday, about 10:00 to 19:00.
Abrima Erwiah and Rosario Dawson's social enterprise, based in Osu since 2013, works with artisan groups in Tamale and Ntonso on natural indigo dyeing and hand-batik. The store doubles as a workshop, café and co-working space.
Ghana's first modern mall, opened in 2008 at the Tetteh Quarshie interchange with around 70 units. Woodin and GTP sell factory wax print at fixed prices, useful as a benchmark against what Makola quoted you that morning.
A garden compound in East Legon selling recycled-glass Krobo beads, Bolgatanga straw baskets, carved masks and furniture built from reclaimed hardwood. Prices are fixed and marked, so there is no haggling to do here.
A contemporary arts space in East Legon, founded in 2006, whose shop sells limited-edition prints, ceramics and hand-bound notebooks by Ghanaian makers. The courtyard hosts craft and design markets several times a year.
A fair-trade cooperative working with roughly 300 women across Ghana. The Osu store stocks hand-batik dresses, shea butter and recycled-glass jewellery, each tagged with the maker's name and the town the piece came from.
Painter Ablade Glover's three-storey gallery on La Beach Road: contemporary Ghanaian canvases upstairs, and a ground floor packed with antique stools, masks, old kente and colonial-era brass gold weights.