The Atiwa East District Economy

The main economic activities in the district are agriculture, commerce, service and industry or manufacturing.  Agriculture remains the dominant sector and employs about 60% of the labour force.  This is followed by the service sector which employs about 34.4% and the mining sector employs 6.6% of the total labour force in the district. The contribution of manufacturing is marginal and such activities are usually organized on small scale basis.

The district has a number of small scale industries engaged in the production of various items. The manufacturing sector is dominated by businesses in the area of  Dressmaking, Carpentry, Metal, fabrication, Distillation of alcoholic beverages (akpeteshie and pito), Leather works,Ceramics,Quarrying, Baking, Milling, Wood processing (saw mills) and Batik / tie and dye making.  These businesses are mainly micro and small-scale enterprises without permanent employees and the owners usually depend on apprentices to undertake their activities.

The service sector is the fastest growing sector in the District.  A chunk of small and medium scale service enterprises have sprung up in the District quite recently mostly in the area of ICT and the setting up of business centres,  hair-dressing salons, repair shops (mechanics, electricians, sprayers etc), spare parts dealers, drug/chemical stores, pharmacies, supermarkets, drinking spots. Other known service providers are banking, telecommunication and postal services.

Financial Institutions

There are four (4) banks in the District. These are Ghana Commercial Bank Ltd, Kwawu - Praso Rural Bank, Atiwa Rural Bank, Adonteng Rural Bank and other saving and loan schemes.

Local economic development (LED)

The business activities in the district revealed that most of the business entities are informal with limited structures for expansion. Most of the business entities are not registered with the Registrar General and National Revenue authority to be able to access some credit facilities for expansion. Again most of these businesses lack the necessary entrepreneurial business management skills to run their businesses efficiently. The road network and the electricity supply in the district   are not good enough to enhance the activities of the business community and this should be improved upon.

Lack of business advisory institution in the district also hampers nurturing and growth of business entities. Effort should be made to establish district branch of NBSSI to build the capacity of the small and medium scale enterprises. The capacity of the medium and small scale enterprises should be built in terms of formalization of their business and training. Again the youth should also be sensitized and supported to submit business proposals to access the Youth Enterprise Support to establish enterprises and create job opportunities for the unemployed youth.

There is no medium scale manufacturing company in the district except some few small scale mining companies and this has implication for high unemployment and poverty. Assembly should therefore take advantage of the Ministry of Trade and Industry’s industrial acceleration programme to establish some agro-processing industries in the district to create jobs and reduce the post-harvest losses. The table below shows the types of small scale Enterprises/businesses