Urban governance in Ghana: the participation of traders in the redevelopment of Kotokuraba Market in Cape Coast

Abstract

This article contributes to the discourse of participatory urban governance through a qualitative analysis of the redevelopment of a market infrastructure in Cape Coast, Ghana. It demonstrates that problems arise with the quantity, distance and size of trading spaces when traders are not made to participate at the construction phase of market redevelopment. The responses of the municipal authorities and the market traders in Cape Coast to these problems are discussed. The wider implication of the findings of this study is that citizens should be engaged from the conception through planning to the implementation of urban regeneration.