Structure of the District Econonmy

Agriculture like most Districts in the Country is the mainstay of the District Economy employing about 70% of the active labour force. Others economic activities that support the Agric sector are; trade and commerce, industry and services (hotels, banking etc).

Achiase and Swedru are the main commercial centers in the District with Achiase being the busiest town. Residents in Swedru, the District Capital mostly carry out their commercial activities in Oda the capital of Birim Central Municipality because of the short distance compared to Achiase. Agriculture is however a rural based sector of the District economy.

Several activities take place in the district that goes a long way to contribute to its economic development.  Agriculture, food processing, commerce, especially trading, lumbering, and small-scale mining are the major economic activities in the district. It provides employment for about 60 percent of the active working population.

In Akim Oda, however, the baseline survey conducted by Kesse-Tagoe and Associates in 1998 revealed that the majority of the labour forces (40%) are engaged in commerce. The Public Service employs 35%, agriculture 10% and industry 5%.

Financial Institutions
Financial sector

Financial sector is operated by two main rural banks namely South Birim and Akyem Bosome rural banks.
The South Birim rural bank has its headquarters in Achiase with branches in Oda, Aperade while the Akyem Bosome rural bank headquarters is in Swedru with a branch also in Oda. 
There are also insurance services but on a small scale.

Analysis of POCC

From the POCC analysis it is clear that the district currently has lot investment opportunities in the area of agric and agri-business, manufacturing and tourism.

High production levels of crops especially citrus provide a potential for the reactivation of the citrus processing factory at a low investment under the Presidential Special Initiative. Oil palm processing factories can also be established in high production area. The high number of small scale industries and the existence of business advisory centre (BAC) in Birim Central Municipality which provides support services for entrepreneurial development could also promote economies of scale and efficiency.

Further analysis indicate that the existence of good roads, potable water supply, health education and telecommunication facilities coupled with a relatively clean environment provide opportunities for investment to accelerate growth and reduce poverty in the district.

The exiting institutional, legal and policy environment which ensures prudent fiscal management and evidence based decision making through public dialogue is a great potential for ensuring accelerated growth and poverty reduction.

Income and Expenditure
Sources of Income

Residents of the district drive their income from six major sources. These are crop farming, craft, business/trade, salaries, remittances and other minor sources, which have been grouped as others.

Majority of households obtain their income from crop farming. This confirms the position of crop farming as the dominant economic activity in the district. Up to 55.4% of households rely on crop farming as their main source of income. Salaries contributes 17.5% of total income compared with trading and other business enterprises each of which provides 13% of total income received by households in the district. Only 1% of household incomes are obtained from remittances. Details are in table below.

The analysis indicates that households that rely on salaries as their income source have higher incomes followed by households with crop farming as their source of income. Remittance constitutes only 1% of total incomes and only 4% of the total number of households relied on it. This confirms the observed gradual breakdown of the family support systems.

Levels of Income

The average household in the district subsists on an annual income of ¢7,632,211.68 which is relatively adequate for a household with a membership/size of five. This gives the district a mean per capita annual income of ¢2,125,456.00.

However, income levels are generally low while at the same time a rather small proportion of the total population has relatively high levels indicating skewness in income distribution pattern. Even though average household incomes are in the region of ¢million, as much as 15% of houses in the district receive annual incomes in excess of ¢12million while 57% of households obtain less than ¢5million, it is significant to note that of 25% of this proportion, being a quarter of the households in the district subsists on less than ¢1million per annum.

Households Expenditure Patterns

Households in the district expand their incomes and other resources on a variety of items and activities. The main components of household expenditure are food clothing, education, transportation, rent, expenditure and funerals, health and housing construction. Others are donations, energy requirements, credit repayment and taxes repayment.

Food consumption was the main expenditure component, accounting for 35% of household expenses in the district. This is less than the national figure of 46% as at 2005. All households also spent on food purchases indicating that even in remote rural communities’ subsistence production are not the only type of economic activity and rural households are now firmly engaged in the cash economy.

Two other inferences could be made from the household expenditure levels on food items. The first is that it is probable that food prices are quite low hence amounts expenditure. The second is that a large proportion of households are engaged in crop farming hence they spend a relatively small proportion of their incomes to purchase supplementary food needs. 

On the average, households spend ¢3,132,332.00 per annum on food purchases. The next most important item households spend on in terms of average expenditure made per household is energy supply. Funerals, clothing educational requirements are other items on which household expend. Details are in table 1

On 30% of households made expenses on rent while 45% were engaged in the construction or rehabilitation of their houses. These imply that owner occupancy levels are high in the district. However, average amounts spent by households on rent and housing construction were low indicating housing improvement activities are on a very limited scale.