KWAHU WEST
DISTRICT PROFILE
The Kwahu West Municipality was carved out of Kwahu South District as Kwahu West District in August, 2004 by a Legislative Instrument (LI) 1589. It was however upgraded into a Municipal status in July, 2007 by Legislative Instrument 1870. It has Nkawkaw as its administrative Municipal Capital which is the second largest urban town in the Eastern Region.
Assembly Member (38)LOCATION AND SIZE
The Kwahu West Municipality is located in the Eastern region of Ghana, 241kms North-West of Ghana’s Capital, and Accra. It lies between latitudes 6o 30’ North, and 7o North and longitudes 0o 30’ West and 1o West of the equator. The Municipality is bordered to the North by Kwahu South, to the West by Asante-Akim South Municipality and to the South by Birim North and to the East by Atiwa District. The Municipality has a total land size of 414km2 representing 2.2 percent of the total land area in the Eastern Region. It has 214 settlements within its jurisdiction with a population density of 1,214 persons per square Kilometers of land.
POPULATION
The 2010 Population and Housing Census put the total population of the municipality at 93,584 which accounts for about 3.6 percent of the population in the Eastern region. Out of this figure, 48 percent are males with 52 percent being females. More than half (51.3%) of the population are in urban areas while 48.3 percent reside in rural areas. This is reflected in the municipal’s contribution of 4.2 percent to the regional urban population, which is higher than its contribution to the region’s rural population (3.1%). Interestingly, all the urban population is located within Nkawkaw, the municipal capital and its suburbs with the rural population scattered in over one hundred localities. Nkawkaw Township makes it one of the most compact localities in the Eastern region ranks second to Koforidua in terms of population. In the same manner, the urban population contains a higher proportion of females (53%) as against 47 percent males.
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY
Over 50,000 people in the Kwahu West Municipality stay in urban areas out of an almost 94,000 people (GSS, PHC, 2010). This translates to a large number of people in the Municipal capital who mainly engage in buying and selling and other service areas such as transport among others on daily basis. In view of this, it can be concluded that more than half of the Municipality’s population are engaged in business and trading activities.
On manufacturing, quite a substantial number of people are into bakery, Pottery, Dress making, Shoe-making, artisanship and catering, which all have a direct application of business and trading skills. This emphasises the point that majority of the people are business minded and are therefore economically depending on retail trading for a living. It must be stated that there abound so many raw materials including clay for Pottery, Palm oil for Soap making and oil extraction, vast land and all year round rainfall among others
D.C.E - HON. YAW OWUSU ADDO
source: www.mofep.gov.gh/publications/composite-budget-2016 and other sources
