Structure of the local Economy

The structure of the local economy can be described in terms of the number of people engaged in the sectors namely agriculture (including forestry and fishery), manufacturing and service.  Agriculture is the largest employer of the active labour force in the district, employing 65.8% of all employed persons, making it the largest industry.  Agriculture is followed by service and craft (and related trade workers) employing 11.2% and 10.6% respectively.The remaining active labour force including managers, professionals, technicians and others constitute 12.6%. This therefore confirms the economic status of the district as agrarian. Wholesaling and retailing together with motor repairs employs about 9% whilst the manufacturing industry employs 8.9% of the labour force.

All other industries employ less than one fifth of the district’s active population. Thus, indicating a weak industrial base of the local economy in agricultural raw materials including maize, legumes, plantain, cassava and vegetables. The district also produces cash crops such as cocoa, oil palm and citrus.This indicates a huge potential exist in the local economy for the expansion of the small scale cottage industry for the processing of oil palm, palm kernel and cassava in the district. Moreover, the availability of natural water bodies in the low lying areas in the district presents potential for food production especially during the minor season through irrigation. Other natural resources that can be tapped to generate jobs and increase income generation include forest bamboo.According to the 2010 PHC, 72.3% of the population of the district are self-employed.

The district has 72.2% of its population to be economically active whilst 2.2 percent are unemployed of which there are more women than men. There are more females (51.5%) than males (48.5%) in the employed population. The working population of the district constitutes 54.3% of the total population of which 15.4 % are in the urban areas whilst 38.8% are the rural areas. The sex distribution in the economically active population however shows a slightly higher proportion of males (72.6%) than female (71.9%). The private sector is the largest employer in the district, employing 95% of the employed population, a figure higher than the regional average of 93.1%.The private informal sector is the largest employer in the district, employing 91.7% of the population followed by the public sector with 4.6 percent.

However, a larger proportion of females (94.8%) operate in the private informal as compared to males who constitute 88.4%.It is important to note that, a relatively higher proportion of females (28.1%) are economically not active as compared to males (27.4%). The age group 20-24 have very high unemployment rate of 36.4%. The youth constitutes a greater proportion of the unemployed in the district. Hence, the private sector should be supported by the creation of an enabling environment through capacity building and other initiatives, to engender the growth and expansion of the private sector to offer employment opportunities for the youth.

District Assembly’s Finance

An examination of the revenue sources of the district for the period under review indicates two main sources:

a) Internal Source refers to revenues available and collected by the Assembly using its own Revenue Collectors and existing collection machinery.These items include rate, lands, fees and fines, licenses, results of investments and Miscellaneous.

b) External Source refers mostly to grants from the Central Government and other external agencies like NGOs and other donor agencies like the World Bank. In the half year of 2014, the performance of the District in terms of revenue generation stands at only 35.38%.  Among the revenue items rates performed better with 71.44 per cent.  In the year 2013, DDF transfer attained 87.2 % of the budget.This enabled the DA to execute its programmes and projects on time. However, the DACF’s transfers only achieved 23.4% of the expected transfer.

This had a destabilizing effect on the plans of the DA. Thus, some prioritized projected had to be either shelved or rolled on to the ensuing year.  During the year 2013, the central government transferred GH¢420,878.24 representing 53.1% of the budget. However, goods and services and assets transfers were not good because of delays in the releases from revenue sources including low performance in IGF collection.

Private Sector
Private Sector Operations

The district has a vibrant private enterprises mainly engaged in the manufacturing (agro processing) and agro-forest, service sectors. These private enterprises have been the backbone of the assembly’s revenue mobilization and contribute over 60% of the DA’s internally generated funds.