Discover Nzema East

Nzema East brings together a river, extensive forest reserves and local history. For your trip planning, it is worth considering these themes separately: boat trips are a key visitor activity on the Ankobra, while Axim offers historical and cultural connections. This can help you decide whether the municipality suits a stay where landscape and history play a part.

The Ankobra River and Forest Reserves

The navigable Ankobra River is a tourist attraction in Nzema East. It gives visitors the opportunity to take boat trips, offering a specific activity on the water. The extensive forest reserves add a vast natural setting to this landscape theme. The river and forest offer different experiences: a journey on the water on the one hand, and the expanses of the reserves on the other.

Most of the municipality’s tourist attractions remain undeveloped. This general level of development is part of what visitors should know about Nzema East, alongside its specific river and forest attractions.

History and Kundum in Axim

Axim is the capital of Nzema East. It is considered the place where the first bank in the then Gold Coast was established. The building still stands and is unoccupied. This history connects Axim to the early banking history of the Gold Coast and gives the town a distinctive historical significance.

The Kundum Festival is also part of the municipality’s cultural identity. An account of the 2026 celebration describes the festival as an annual event and names Lower Town Axim and the Nsein Traditional Area as joint celebrants. Alongside Axim’s history, this brings two communities and their shared festival tradition into focus.

The Western Region as a wider travel destination

Looking at the wider Western Region opens up further cultural and natural attractions for broader trip planning. These include Fort San Sebastian in Shama: Ghana’s third-oldest fortification, built by the Portuguese between 1520 and 1526.

Nzulezu is also in the Western Region. This 400-year-old stilt village on Lake Tadane has several hundred residents. A guided tour to the stilt village can be arranged from the visitor centre in Beyin. The trip takes an hour by dugout canoe, covering five kilometres through waterscapes to Lake Tadane; the full tour is listed as taking three hours. If you plan this tour, check locally before travelling whether it can currently be arranged.

For the evening, performances by a local cultural group featuring drumming and dancing can be arranged in the Western Region by special arrangement. If you would like to include such a performance in your plans, make the arrangements in advance.

Discover more destinations: Axim

Go to the wider travel overview: Western Region.