Why it looks like this

The oldest streets of Accra sit by the shore, where Ga fishing towns grew up around three forts of three different European powers: the British James Fort, the Dutch Ussher Fort, and the Danish Christiansborg Castle at Osu. Each fort had its own town, and their crooked old lanes still contrast with the wider planned roads inland.

In 1877 the British made Accra the capital of the Gold Coast colony, and the city spread inland from the coast — which is why the dense, irregular core hugs the sea while newer, looser street patterns fan out to the north.