Transport Minister justifies renaming of Kotoka International Airport, says move is apolitical

Transport Minister, Joseph Bukari Nikpe has justified government’s decision to rename Kotoka International Airport, insisting that the move is part of a broader restructuring effort aimed at restoring the facility to its original name.

Addressing journalists during a working visit to the State Transport Corporation on Wednesday, February 3, 2026, the Minister maintained that the move to change the name to Accra International Airport has no political linen to it.

“This is one of the issues that the Ministry of Transport and for that matter government presented to Parliament as part of our activities for this period of recall. Renaming the Airport to Accra International Airport is of significance importance to Ghanaian people and for that matter the African personality.

“We are not doing this with any political thinking, this is coming from a very neutral point of view that Accra is our capital city, not anybody’s name. If we want to name other monuments or any other national facilities to people, this is the time that we are looking at restructuring them,” he stated.

He emphasised that this is being done in line with international standard practices whereby some airports are named after capital cities.

“We are not doing this to cause any pain or harm to anybody, we will want to look at the geographical importance and we will want to look at other practices in the world,” he added.

Government through the Transport Ministry is proposing a new bill to rename Kotoka International Airport (KIA) as Accra international airport.

Majority Leader, Mahama Ayariga at a press conference on February 3, 2026 confirmed that the Ministry will soon present a bill to Parliament for the Airport to be renamed.

“We are changing the name of our airport from Kotoka International Airport to Accra International Airport. So a bill will be brought by the Minister for Transport for the name to be changed from Kotoka International Airport to Accra International Airport. So the Accra International Airport bill will also come,” he said.

The name change comes after 59 years since Ghana’s primary aviation hub was named Kotoka International Airport (KIA).