POPULATION of the twin-city of Sekondi/Takoradi has over the past two years, after announcement of the oil find, been experiencing a significant increase.
The number of visitors trooping in the metropolis seeking to do business or looking for greener pastures has also seen enormous increase.
Many financial institutions such as the banks and insurance companies, which hitherto had their head offices only in Accra, Kumasi and Tema, have now opened branches in the twin-city.
Other businesses from Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and other parts of the world whose businesses have a direct link with oil drilling activities are also taking their positions to help in achieving the country’s hope in commercially producing oil by 2010.
It is sad, however, that facilities in the metropolis have not seen any correspondent expansion to contain the current flow in traffic to the metropolis.
Hitherto, it took one less than five minutes to drive from Sekondi to the central business district of Takoradi, but now one can remain in traffic for more than 20 minutes.
Besides, companies and their employees are seriously looking for space for their offices and residential accommodation.
A two-bedroom apartment now attracts rent of between GH¢ 100 and GH¢150 and a single room or a bed seater costs about GH¢40 or GH¢50 a month, depending on the location and the facilities available.
This has, therefore, brought to the fore the need to give serious attention to real estate development as anyone who ventures into that field would never regret.
There is the need to redevelop the metropolis to accommodate those who are relocating.
For example, Whindo, Asseke and Kanssawurodu, which were peri-urban communities of the metropolis, now find themselves in the middle of it and there is the need to extend facilities to those areas.
The chiefs and people of the various peri-urban communities are willing to give out land to investors who want to put up malls such as the Accra Mall, office complexes and residential accommodation.
These would help ease congestion in the central business district, around which all economic activities revolve.
The construction of the stadium at Essipon has transformed the face of the community tremendously, and the chiefs and people of the place are now seeking to attract investors there.
Therefore, to ensure a speedy development and expansion of the metropolis, there is a need for new companies seeking to relocate in the metropolis to move to other parts of it such as Soforkom or Kojokrom.
According to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), there are limited offshore oil drilling opportunities, but there are onshore opportunities such as support services in the areas of catering/restaurants, transportation/freight, ICT support, travel, insurance, banking, accommodation, stationery and office supplies, construction, electrical services and chemicals.
Many of these service providers who started moving into the metropolis and are clamouring for space in the central business district of Takoradi should rather turn to the periphery of the metropolis.
Currently, some of the oil companies relocating to the metropolis have found refuge at the country’s military base, which is not good enough.
Some of the companies are at the Naval Base in Sekondi, because the commercial port in Takoradi is not big enough to contain them.
A drive through Sekondi exposes very old structures that are residential facilities, and some landlords are willing to go into partnership with real estate agencies to pull down their old structures and put up high-rise buildings for a mutual benefit.
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