A map of the seventeenth region: a black star at Ghana, joined by threads to sixteen cities where the diaspora already lives. Toronto, New York, Washington, Havana, Kingston, Port of Spain, Cartagena, Salvador, Sao Paulo, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg and Sydney. Light travels out from Ghana to each city and back again.
There is a version of Ghana that lives outside Ghana.
We are it.
We kept the language. We sent something home on the first of the month without being asked. We built the clinics and the school blocks and the boreholes, through associations meeting in church halls, in cities Ghana has never had on any map.
In December 2025 the President said out loud what we have always been.
Ghana's seventeenth region.
The declaration did not create us. It caught up with us.
What a region is
A region is not a line on a map.It is a place where people can be foundby name, and reached when opportunity comes looking.
So when there is work in Kumasi that needs exactly what you do, home will know your name.
The ledger
Ghana counts sixteen regions at home.
We are the seventeenth.
- AHAAhafo
- ASHAshanti
- BONBono
- BOEBono East
- CENCentral
- EASEastern
- GACGreater Accra
- NEANorth East
- NORNorthern
- OTIOti
- SAVSavannah
- UEAUpper East
- UWEUpper West
- VOLVolta
- WESWestern
- WNOWestern North
17The seventeenth — youNo borders. Everywhere we already are, written down.
Region 17 launch, Washington D.C., 30 July 2026
One people
We find each otherby name now.
This is us
Every branch of the family,counted as one.
- Born in GhanaYou left with a suitcase and a promise. The promise still stands.
- Born to GhanaRaised abroad, never needed a stamp to belong. Now there is a name for what you already were.
- Descended from the continentThrough the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe. The ocean took the records. It did not take the thread. Region 17 is where you pick it back up.
- African family abroadNigerian, Senegalese, Kenyan, all of us. Ghana's door has never been closed to the continent.
- The returnedAlready home, or packing. Your seat is warm on both sides of the ocean.
- Friends of GhanaMarried in, moved in, or simply moved by it. Chosen family counts as family here.
Six ways of carrying Ghana. One standing, no tiers. Every one of them begins with a name.
The window
There is onlyone Charter.
It opens 5 October. It closes 31 January.
Every year after this one has a Cohort.
Home cannot know your name until it is written.
Add my nameFree for family. Always. Three minutes to be counted.
Region 17 membership is a standing in a community. It is not a government document and confers no citizenship, residence, visa, or right of entry.
Not ready to join yet?
Start with the oneyour people are from.
Take a deep dive into each of our sixteen regions and see where you fit. Every region has its own page, its own plans, and its own ways in.
- AhafoGhana's green newcomer: cocoa farms around Goaso, sacred groves, forest reserves. One of the youngest regions in the country, which means the ground floor is still wide open for family who want in early.
- AshantiKumasi, the Golden Stool, and the living heart of Asante heritage. The region most of our families trace first, and a manufacturing and trade engine second only to Accra.
- BonoSunyani, regularly named Ghana's cleanest city, surrounded by cashew and cocoa country. A quiet powerhouse that has sent teachers, nurses, and farmers across the world for generations.
- Bono EastTechiman hosts one of West Africa's largest food markets, moving yam, maize, and cashew by the truckload. Kintampo's falls mark the old geographic centre of Ghana.
- CentralCape Coast and Elmina: the castles, the Door of No Return, and the ground where the diaspora's homecoming began. Also Ghana's densest concentration of historic schools.
- EasternAkosombo's dam lit the nation. Aburi's gardens, Koforidua's beads, and the Akwapim hills sit an hour from Accra, which is why so many families keep land here.
- Greater AccraThe capital region: Accra's energy, Tema's port, and W.E.B. Du Bois's resting place. The front door most of us walk through first, and the seat of the AfCFTA.
- North EastNalerigu, seat of Mamprugu, one of the oldest kingdoms in Ghana. Shea and groundnut country where traditional governance still runs deep and steady.
- NorthernTamale is one of West Africa's fastest-growing cities, and Larabanga's mud-and-stick mosque has stood since the 1400s. The north's commercial anchor.
- OtiAlong Lake Volta's eastern shore: fishing towns, yam country, and the Breast Mountains. Carved out in 2019 and still writing its first chapter, with room in it for us.
- SavannahGhana's largest region by land. Mole National Park's elephants, the old Gonja kingdom, Larabanga at its edge. Big sky, deep history, wide-open opportunity.
- Upper EastBolgatanga's baskets travel the world; Paga's crocodiles greet visitors by name. Smart irrigation is turning dry-season farming into year-round business.
- Upper WestWa's historic mosque, the hippo sanctuary at Wechiau, and some of the warmest hosting culture in Ghana. Shea country with serious agribusiness headroom.
- VoltaLake Volta, Wli Falls, Mount Afadja, and the Aflao border where Ghana meets West African trade. The corridor Ghana has named its next economy. Early still means something here.
- WesternTakoradi's oil, gas, and harbour; Nzulezu standing on stilts; beaches running to the border. Where Ghana's energy economy meets the sea.
- Western NorthDeep-forest cocoa heartland around Sefwi Wiawso, source of much of the chocolate the world eats, and home to one of Africa's most unexpected communities of faith.
