The Ghana Institute of Architects (GIA) is a professional society for architects and built environment affiliates located in Accra, Ghana. The first professional body in independent Ghana, it was registered in 1962 and inaugurated in December 1964 as a self-governing and fully indigenous institution to advance the architectural practice, education and accreditation in the country. The Institute is the successor to the pre-independence Gold Coast Society of Architects, a colonial social club for Gold Coast-based architects founded in August 1954. The first president of the Ghana Institute of Architects was Theodore Shealtiel Clerk (1909–1965), the first formally trained, professionally certified Ghanaian architect and an award-winning urban planner who designed, planned and developed the ha