The Ahanta West District is located along the southern coast of Ghana. Formerly under the jurisdiction of the Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly, now Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly, the Ahanta West District formed its own autonomous district and government in 1988 as per L.I 1395.

The District capital is Agona Nkwanta, a town centrally located within the District. The district has 123 settlements. Ethnic composition in the District is quite homogeneous with Ahanta as the dominant group. Other major ethnic groupings are Fanti, Nzema, Wassa and Ewe. The Ahanta West District has three Traditional Councils namely: Busua, Lower Dixcove and Upper Dixcove Traditional Council.

Administratively, the District has six (6) Area Councils namely; Agona, Apowa, Abura, Busua, Dixcove and Ewusiejoe. The District has 36 elected Assembly members and 16 Appointees. The total representation is made up of 51 males and 3 females, the Member of Parliament and the District Chief Executive inclusive. The District covers a land area of 591km2, which is approximately 2.47% of the total land area of Western Region. It shares boundaries with Nzema East Municipal to the west, Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal & Mpohor District on the north, Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly to the east and the Gulf of Guinea to the south.

Mission Statement

The Ahanta West District Assembly exists to improve the quality of life of the people in the district by efficiently and effectively mobilizing our human and material resources with our development partners for socio economic development and growth.

Vision

The Ahanta West District wishes to be the most efficient, effective and the best district in Ghana in terms of the provision of social amenities and resources for the socio-economic development of its people.

Demography

The population of the district is 106,215 according to the 2010 Population and Housing Census. This is made up of 50,999 males representing 48.01% and 55,216 females representing 51.99%, translating into a sex ratio of 92.4. The District has a population density of 180.0 persons per square kilometer.

This makes the district population relatively dense. The population of the district constitutes about 4.5% and 0.43% of the total population of the Western Region and Ghana respectively.  The population of the district is relatively young, with over 47 per cent within the age group, 0-17. The proportion of urban to total population is 29.5 per cent, with the remaining 70.5 per cent rural. The urban population covers peri-urban areas of Agona Ahanta, Apowa, Dixcove, and Abura. There are 26,095 households in the district, with the number of persons per household being approximately 4.0 as compared to both the regional and national average of 4.2 and 4.4 respectively.

District Assembly Economy

Road

The total length of roads in the district is about 200 kilometers, comprising of 80-kilometre stretch of trunk roads and 120 kilometers of feeder roads. The trunk road traverses the district in an East-West direction and forms part of the Trans-African Highway. The trunk road which stretches from Apowa to Anyaano is under construction. The condition of feeder roads in the district is mixed with 70 per cent as good, 20 per cent as fair and 10 per cent as poor.

Sanitation

Currently, out of the 123 communities in the Ahanta West District, only 5 communities, namely; Agona-fie, Agona Nkwanta, Apowa and Dixcove are provided with 14 skip containers. Crude dumping is carried out in all the 123 communities. The district has about 250 dumping sites but only 14 of these sites are approved. The District has only one final disposal site for solid waste at Damtse in Agona Nkwanta.

Toilet facilities in the district are as follows; 43 percent served with VIP, 38.5 percent using flush toilet. The pit latrine is the major mode of human waste disposal beside the KVIP.

Energy

The District has had its fair share of the national grid connection project. As of the end of the implementation of the GPRS II, more than 50 percent out of the 123 communities were connected to the national grid. Currently the remaining 60 communities are being connected to the national grid. Out of this figure, 15 communities have had their transformers installed and ten (10) communities was already connected as at December, 2013.  The provision of electricity would facilitate local economic development as well as serving as catalyst for reducing poverty levels in such communities.

Education

Currently, there are 45 pre-schools, 119 Kindergartens, 109 primary schools, 81 junior high schools, 2 senior high schools and 1 technical and vocational training school.Total number of teachers for both public and private schools in the District stood at 1,504 for the 2013/2014 academic year. Out of this number, 787 are trained whiles the remaining 717 representing 47.7% are untrained. The total enrolment of pupils attending school from Kindergartens through to Junior High School was 39,622 during the 2013/2014 academic year in both the public and the private schools. Total enrolment for males and females was 19,972 and 19,650 respectively, translating into a gender parity index of 0.98.

Tourism

The District has attractive seashores, historical monuments, fishing villages, primeval forests giving it the potential for tourism. Notable among these are: Busua Beach Resort, River delta at Seacoast village of Pumponie, Wooded beach near Dixcove, “icon” lighthouse at the farthest point in Ghana, Cape Three Points. Out of the eight forts and fotress in the region, four of them are situated in the district.

health

The goal of the district is to improve access to quality maternal, child and adolescent health services; intensify prevention and control of non-communicable and communicable diseases among others. It also seeks to improve maternal mortality rates, reduce child mortality rate, combat HIV and AIDS and other diseases.      

The district has 1 public hospital located at Dixcove, 4 health centres, 3 clinics and 12 CHPS compounds. There are also 100 outreach points and a number of drug stores that are highly patronized by members of the community. The proximity of the district to Takoradi enables many inhabitants, particularly those living in Apowa, New Amanful and Funkoe, to patronize health facilities in the Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis.

The district has 1 doctor and about 103 nurses, which results in a high doctor/patient ratio. The problem confronting the health sector is not only inadequate health facilities, but also inadequate personnel who are reluctant to accept postings to remote areas without facilities, medicines and medical equipment.

Over the period, malaria continues to be the leading cause of out-patient morbidity and admission. Institutional mortality due to malaria has been drastically reduced and no longer in the top ten cause of deaths in the year under review due to an improvement in its corresponding indicators as a result of intensification of malaria control interventions.

Water

Sustainable access to basic facilities such as safe water and basic sanitation by the majority of the population are the main concerns of the seventh Millennium Development Goal (Ensuring environmental sustainability).

Boreholes remain one of the major sources of drinking water for the people of Ahanta West. Others also hand-dug wells as well as pipe-borne water for their household work. The district has 170 boreholes, 17 hand-dug wells fitted with pumps, 3 small town water system, and 5 pipe systems as well as over 500 unprotected wells. The total population served with water currently stands at 97,690, constituting 81.6% of the current population. The table below gives the summary;

Table 1: Water Situation in the District, 2016

Financial Institution

There are two rural banks operating in the district, which is Ahantaman Rural Bank Limited headquartered in Agona Ahanta with agencies in Apowa, Dixcove, Abura and Lower Pra Rural Bank Limited with an agency at Dixcove.  Das-gift, GESRO, Tandoh Micro finance and Aped are other non-banking institution that give micro-financing to SMEs in the district. Again Agriculture Development Bank and First National Bank are the commercial banks operating in the district.

Telecommunication

Telecommunication is improving in the district with regards to mobile facilities. About 75 percent of the communities have mobile telecommunication network. Out of 69,784 persons aged 12 years and older in the district, only 27,935 representing 40 percent own mobile phones with only 2,342 representing about 3 percent use internet facility.

📞 Contact Information

For more information or inquiries:

• Address: Ahanta West Municipal Assembly, P.O. Box 22, Agona-Ahanta, Western Region, Ghana
• Phone: (+233 3120) 21880
• Email: ahantawestdistrictassembly@gmail.com
• Website: www.ahantawest.gov
  • https://wrcc.gov.gh/

Ahanta West Municipal District stands out as a region rich in culture, history, and economic potential, making it a significant area within Ghana’s Western Region.