Agona West Municipal Assembly (AWMA) was created out of the former Agona District Assembly (ADA) on 25th February, 2008 by LI 1920. AWMA is one of the twenty (20) political and administrative districts in the Central Region of Ghana. AWMA has 1 Urban Council – Nyarkrom Urban Council (LI 1967) and 5 Zonal Councils
To become a well developed Municipal Assembly that provides and facilitates excellent services to its people to ensure improvement in the quality of life of its people.
The Agona West Municipal Assembly exists to facilitate the improvement in the quality of life of the people in close collaboration with the private sector and other development partners in the Municipality through the mobilization and the judicious use of resources and provision of Basic Socio-Economic Development within the context of Good Governance.
Agona West is situated in the eastern corner of the Central Region within latitudes 5030’ and 5050’N and between longitudes 0035’ and 0055’W.The city has a total land area of 447 square kilometers. The Municipality is divided into six (6) sub-districts or Town/Area Councils.
The Municipal capital, Swedru, is at a nodal point of roads radiating to the rich cocoa growing areas of the Central Region. Swedru is approximately twenty-four kilometers North of Winneba.
The Municipality is bordered to the North by Agona East, to the South by Gomoa East and to the Northwest and West by Asikuma, Odoben, Brakwa and Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Districts (Map 2).
According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census, the Agona West Municipality has an estimated total population of 115,358 with female slightly dominating at an estimated population of 61, 199 while male population was estimated at 54,159.
The population growth rate was 2.656% in 1984. About 40% of the populace were children. In 1960, the population of the area forming the current Agona District was 82,607 and growing at an annual rate of 0.6% it reached 87,446 in 1970 and by 1984 the total population was 122,631 showing an annual growth rate of 2.66% between 1970 and 1984(source: 1996-2000 Medium Term Development Plan page 14). With the current (2010) population estimated at 115358. The annual growth rate between 2000 and 2010 is 2.8 per annum.
The Agona Municipality growth rate of 2.8% is higher than both the national and regional growth rates of 2.5% and 3.1% respectively. The above picture shows that the Municipality is experiencing a continual rise in the growth rate as it has shown a rise from 0.6% in 1960 to the present rate of 2.8%. The rapid increase is more importantly the result of both high birth rate and a considerably reduction in mortality as well as high in-migration rate. Though these are encouraging, the increasing population in the Municipality will place a growing strain on the municipality’s resources and create serious problems for the Municipal Assembly in particular and the central government in general.
Based on the 2010 Population and Housing Census and the Greater Accra growth rate of 3.1% the total population of Agona West Municipal Assembly for 2019 is projected at 93, 013 of which 48,786 are males and 44,228 are females. The males (48,786) make up 52.4% of the population while the females (44,228) make up 47.6% of the population. Population density1:234 people per square kilometer.
The age and sex structure of the Municipal population shows that the population is predominantly female (53.1%), with males forming about 46.9%.1.5 Economic and Occupational Characteristics. The resource base of the Municipality is determined by the natural resources of the area. This has made the Municipality economy predominantly agricultural oriented.
The climate, soil and labour base of the Municipality is agricultural biased. As a result of this, all the products of the Municipality are mainly agriculture outputs. Cash crop production dominates all farming activities of the Municipality e.g. cocoa, citrus, oil palm and coconut. There are a few deposits of clay and gold but not to support commercial production and exploitation. Agriculture is the major economic activity in Agona West and engages more than 64% of the Municipal population.
The indigenous people of the Municipality are the ‘Agonas’. Over the years they have co-existed with other prominent minority migrants such as Obutus, Gomoas, Ewes, Effutus, Fantis, Kwahus, Atakpames, Kontokoris and several ethnic groupings of Northern Ghana origin. There is no existing documentation on the ethnic structure of the Municipality but local estimates of the migrant population is about 10% to 30% (4-Year Integrated MTDP (2010-2013)).
Apart from Swedru (the Municipal capital) to which people are attracted due to the existence of public and private sector business activities, Otsenkorang Area Council also has a high migrant population due to the cocoa industry. Here, migrants out-number the indigenes by a ratio of 4:1 (source: 1996-2000 MTDP). Kwahus and Gomoas dominate in cocoa farming.
Despites the high number of different ethnic groups, the Municipality has a strong social integration from the diverse ethnic groups. The groups intermarry and participate in shared cropping arrangements under the existing land tenure systems, especially the ‘Abunu’ and ‘Abusa’ which are commonly practiced. This has promoted solid social bonds and economic ties between migrant tenants and their indigenous landlords. It also makes it easier for tenants to acquire land for farming.
The Agona West Municipality is a modern and cosmopolitan one. There are people of diverse socio-cultural background living within the Municipality. The indigenous people of the area are Agona and celebrate Akwanbo Festival. Thus the municipality has Akan People of Agona Descent. There is also the presence of expatriates from all over the country living and working in the Municipality. Languages most widely spoken include Twi, and Agona languages.
With respect to religious composition, Christians, Traditionalist and Islam constitute the population amongst other minor religions. This makes the celebration of Christmas, Id Fitr etc. very important in the lives of most residents.
Generally, the Municipality lies in the wet semi-equatorial climate zone. It has two main crop growing seasons: a bio-modal pattern of rainfall with the maxima occurring in May/June and September/October. The annual rainfall figure lies within the range of 1000mm – 1400mm. The dry season starts in December and ends in March with the highest mean monthly temperature of 33.80 occurring between March/April and the lowest of about 29.40 C in August.
The area falls within the moist tropical and semi-deciduous forest with a lot of valuable timber trees like mahogany, sapele, silk cotton, wawa and odum. Due to over logging, most of the timber trees are no more. The most predominant and giant tree left is the silk cotton. The recent award of concessions for the harvesting of this tree poses the greatest ecological danger to the environment. Aforestation, particularly the cultivation of teak and other forest trees would become very important economic ventures in future.
Agona West has a diversified relief with altitudes varying between 75-150 meters above sea level with the highest point being 350 meters. Agona West has undulating and sloppy topography from north to south with isolated hillocks in the north- east, most of which are made up of granite rocks. The main river which primarily drains through the Municipality is Akora River. There are other rivers like Abena, and Enchiwi, which could be useful for purposes of irrigation.
The Assembly draws its functions from section (12) subsection (1) to (3) of the Local Governance Act, 2016 Act 936 as follows; 12.
