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)

• Male (33)
• Female (5)

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