District Economy

The Structure of the Local Economy

a)  Primary Production: The District Economy is predominantly an agrarian one with 77% of the inhabitants being farmers majority of whom engaged in subsistence farming in crop production and Livestock keeping.

b)   Services:  Services also employ about 15% of the people in the District.  Some of the main component of the services provided include, buying and selling, tourism, banking, communication, dressmaking, hairdressing, operation of private schools etc.

c)   Manufacturing:  Manufacturing employs about 8% of the working population in the district.  Some of the manufacturing activities include production of bricks and tiles, extraction of palm oil and palm kennel, processing of cassava into gari, etc.  These activities are scattered throughout the district. This also includes mining and quarrying.

Accessibility to Banking Services

Banking and non banking financial services are available in the District. The major Banks in the District are Adansiman Rural Bank. The district also has U Trak Savings and Loans and MGI Savings and Loans.  Other banks such as Ghana Commercial Bank and Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) are found at Obuasi and Bekwai Municipalities. These banks offer financial assistance to farmers, workers and businessmen in the District.

Accessibility to Production and Marketing Centres

The District economy is basically agrarian with agricultural activities undertaken in the rural areas where the soils are conducive for food and cash crops production.  Major cash crops grown in the District are cocoa, oil palm and citrus.  Major food crops grown are maize, rice, cocoyam, plantain, cassava and yam. Cocoa grown areas in the District are Koben Tawiakrom, Duapompo, Mfakanfahu, Nyamekrom, Anitoa, Bokuruwaso, Konsiwaa, Asilivikrom, Boasewa, Anunu.

Production Centres in Adansi Asokwa District

The District now has three (3) major marketing centres located at Fumso, Asokwa and Bodwesango. The Assembly’s Internally Generated Fund (IGF) is mainly generated from these markets. Fumso market is the most vibrant market within the district. The rest of the markets are not performing enough in terms of revenue generation which makes it difficult for the Assembly to achieve its revenue target. The Assembly must therefore strategize means of revamping these markets to contribute their expected revenue quota for the district development.

Market flows

The Market flow analysis was used to determine the volume, kind and direction of flow of trade. Fumso, Bodwesango and Nsokote markets which are the only functioning market in the District were used for the analysis.

Asokwa, Anhwiaso, Akrofuom, Akwansrem and Aboabo markets are daily markets and have Thursday as weekly market days. A market survey was conducted for one of the market days to determine the in- flows and out-flows of goods. The analysis was used to determine the volume of commodities that enter and leave the various routes into the market.

 B A N K I N G

In recent past, the Banking industry in Ghana has witnessed a lot of transformation which include the introduction of electronic banking among others into the industry.  Despite the fact that running and maintaining such facilities are very expensive, banks keep investing more resources into this area even in time of recession.

In the wake of this development, some of the banks are still operating with the manual system; thus making it difficult to provide better services.  The District has a Rural Bank, Adansi Rural Bank, Bosome Freho Rural Bank, UTrak Savings and Loans and MGI Savings and Loans. Banks such as Ghana Commercial Bank, Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), etc, are non existent in the District. One has to travel to Bekwai and Obuasi in order to have access to these banks which has made non-banking population in the District higher which does not auger well for socio-economic development.

HOUSEHOLD INCOME AND EXPENDITURE

On the whole, household incomes in the District are very low.  This is reflected in the fact that the output of the people who are mainly subsistence farmers, small scale manufacturers and limited services providers are very low and do not bring sufficient incomes to the various households in the district. 

As a result of this, low standard of living of the people is reflected in the lives of the people.  The evidence of which is found in the dilapidated buildings that the majority of the people occupy, the inability of majority of the people to send their children to good schools due to their inability to pay school fees, leading to high school dropout rate in the district, inability of majority of household to afford balanced diets, etc

Poverty Levels

The Ghana Living Standard Survey defines poverty as subsistence on an income that is less than two-thirds of the national per capital income.  The definition reveals two types of poverty levels in the District.

i. The poverty line which defines population earning less than two-thirds of the average national incomes; and

ii. The hard core line which consists of the population living on less than ¹/3 of the income.

Poverty Indicators

The manifestation of poverty in the Districtis depicted by symptoms inherent in any agricultural economy. Despite the poverty levels, as shown by these indicators of poverty, they have coping mechanism that helps them to sustain.  These mechanisms may be current or future. Current Coping Mechanism includes:

Mixed farming

Reliance on family and relatives

Borrowing from friends

Engaging in illegal activities such as illegal falling of trees and surface mining.  

To improve incomes and raise their status certain future coping mechanisms are anticipated:

i. Training in employable skills

ii. Improved market prices for farm produce

iii. Increased access to markets and roads

iv. More support from the government (Micro-Credit Schemes)

v. Promote the development of alternative sources of livelihood

The Areas of Poverty Indication are:

A. BASIC NEEDS

i. Inadequate housing

ii. Poor Nutrition/Food

iii. Poor educational Attainment

iv. Inadequate access to health care

B.     HOUSEHOLD

No savings for investments

Lack of non-farm employment

Peasant farming

C.  RESOURCES/VULNERABILITY

Food insecurity

Low employable skills

Inadequate credit facilities

Low access to economic infrastructure and services (e.g. roads, market, health, education)

D.  POLITICAL DEPRIVATION

Low level of participation in local level governance

Inadequate access to information

No influence on local decision-making                                                                           

Low self esteem

In view of the effect of poverty on the socio-economic development of the District, the Assembly is implementing pro-poor programmes to mitigate the impact of poverty.  The Assembly is currently embarking on the Youth Employment Programme to provide employable skills and jobs to the youth. In the District under the programme, certain modules have been selected by the Assembly during the previous plan period (2014-2017) to train the youth in these modules.

Economic Activity Status

Among the working age population, the economically active population constitutes (71.3%) while the remaining (28.7%) are economically not active. The district has about 95.7 percent of its economically active population employed while only 4.3 percent are unemployed with regard to sex/gender variation. Also the unemployed 15 years and older recorded the percentage 3.9 and 4.6 for both sexes whiles population 15 years and older who are economically not active constitute about 27.7 percent respectively for both sexes and this represent a slight increase which needs intervention by planners in the district.

Occupational Distribution

The 2010 PHC data shows that majority (65%) of the workforce was engaged in skilled agriculture including forestry and fishery work followed by (10.8%) of the population who are craft and related trades workers for the male categories. The workforce for the females which accounted for the highest percentage is skilled agriculture forestry and fishery workers (58.7%) as against Service and sales workers (18.5%) and Craft and related trades workers (12.4%). Occupation like the Clerical Support constituted less than one percent for both sexes in the district, and this indicates the dominancy of agriculture in Adansi Asokwa district as a source of occupation for the populace.