In 2013, a project called “Petronia City” was launched. The project is a proposed 2000-acre city development project that aims to provide the first fully integrated business hub for West Africa’s oil, gas, and mining industries.
It is located about 8 kilometers from Takoradi, the capital of Ghana’s Western Region, which is rich in natural resources and has a strategic position on the Atlantic coast.
The project was to design and offer residential, office, industrial, commercial, leisure, and hospitality spaces for local and international businesses and residents.
Almost 10+ years later, and not much has come of the project.
Is this project yet another white elephant similar to projects like Hope City?
How It Started
The project was founded by Wonda World Estates, a joint venture between Ghanaian serial entrepreneur Nana Kwame Bediako and British multi-millionaire property developer Azad Cola, who owns the prestigious Westbury Hotel in Ireland.
It was launched in 2013 to address the infrastructure deficit in Ghana’s Western Region following the 2007 oil discovery and associated growth in socio-economic activity in the region.
It was set to be carried out in phases, with the first phase being a 70-acre model of the entire complex, starting with the installation of world-class basic infrastructure.
The phase includes the construction of commercial and residential facilities, including a four-star hotel with a 200-seat conference center, four office buildings totaling 22,000 square meters, schools, and clinics, a leisure center, a shopping mall, 25 executive villas with three and four bedrooms, and 140 studio, one, two, and three-bedroom apartments.
The second phase of the project would see the creation of “Energy Africa”, which would serve as the primary business hub and office park for international oil, gas, and mining companies.
The phase would also include the development of Petronia City’s Golf City, a golf-centered community and tourism destination.
The final phase of the project would involve the development of the city’s light and heavy industrial zones. These zones would house facilities for electricity generation, water treatment, recycling plants, and aluminum and bauxite production.
Although the cost of the project was not announced, some documents seen by the Journal have estimated the cost to be within the range of $695 million.
Other figures point out that the project was closer to $4 billion.
According to a news report in 2022, ICICB Group, a Dubai-based investment holding company focused on financial services and investment offerings, had announced that it would invest $100 million into the project.
Progress Of the Project
When Nana Kwame Bediako, the lead for the project, announced the initiative, he stated the allocated land would be “Silicon Valley-esque”.
He stated the land would be: “An industrial free trade zone and investment community, a Silicon Valley-esque energy city and a digital hub, with residential and commercial applications that we are only now in the process of fully exploring“.
In a post on the project website, Mr. Bediako said he had convinced 12 chiefs and 65 families to sell their land for him to develop the industrial park.
But from our checks, as of December 2023, major development of the city has yet to begin.
In 2020, a YouTuber shot footage on a bike ride where the land had been procured. However, the land was bare, with little to no work ongoing.
In 2021, the same YouTuber checked in for another update. Some work on hotels appeared to have started, but there was not much to report on from his narration.
Checks from satellite data on Google Earth show new signs no modern construction in the general vicinity of the proposed site.
Zooming Out
The Petronia City project is becoming similar to large-scale projects like Hope City, which unfortunately failed to take off.
After more than 10 years, we do not have sufficient information to conclude whether this project will be continued or if it’s facing permanent stasis.
But we would not be surprised if this project does not come to fruition like others in the past.
