Makola Market is the beating heart of Accra's commerce — a sprawling, open-air trading empire in the heart of the city where thousands of traders, mostly women, sell everything from fresh produce and textiles to hardware, herbs and imported goods. **Location and scale.** Makola sits in the central business district, bounded roughly by Kojo Thompson Road, the Kinbu area and the lanes running toward the Tudu and Rawlings Park districts. It is not one building but a dense grid of stalls, sheds, alleys and streets that spill onto the pavements — so vast that first-timers routinely get lost in it. It is arguably the single largest market in Ghana and one of the biggest in West Africa. **History.** The market grew out of a colonial-era trading area in the early 20th century and was formally developed in the 1920s. It was destroyed by fire in 1979 and rebuilt in the early 1980s under the Rawlings era, which is why much of the present structure dates from that period. Over the decades it has survived fires, demolitions, relocation drives and the rise of supermarkets and malls — and outlasted them all, because it offers what formal retail cannot: everything under one roof, in small quantities, at negotiable prices, from dawn. **The women of Makola.** Makola is famously a women's economy. The great "market queens" — the commodity queens who control the wholesale trade in tomatoes, onions, pepper, fish and other staples — are powerful figures in Ghanaian commerce, able to move prices and supply chains across the country. The market is also the historic stronghold of the Ga women traders and of migrant traders from all over Ghana and neighbouring countries. **What you'll find.** Fresh food and produce; fabrics, kente, wax print and ready-made clothing; cosmetics and hair products; household goods, kitchenware and hardware; herbal medicine and traditional remedies; beads, jewellery and crafts; and a constant tide of imported goods. Around it cluster related trades — carriers, porters, food sellers, money changers, transport. **Practical notes.** Go early — the market is at full roar by 6–7am and thins after about 5pm. Bargaining is expected. Watch your belongings in the crowded lanes, and be ready for heat, noise and the famous aggressive salesmanship. It is a short walk from the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange area and easily reached by trotro from almost anywhere in Accra. There's a Twi saying that fits Makola well: *"Yɛnni bi, yɛwɔ bi"* — "we don't have some, we have some" — the trader's answer that means there is always something to sell and something to buy. That is Makola in a sentence: whatever you need, someone there has it, and someone there will haggle with you for it.