STRATEGIC OVERVIEW OF THE ASSEMBLY

Establishment of the District

The Assembly was created in 2020 through LI 2420. It was first established as Akatsi District Assembly in 1989 by Legislative Instrument (LI) 1470 and existed as such until it was split into Akatsi North and Akatsi South in 2012, bringing into force LI 2165, redefining the boundaries of the then Akatsi South District. 

The municipality has a total land surface area of 536 km², which is about 2.6% of the regional and 0.2% of the national land surface areas respectively. The Municipal Capital, Akatsi, is located about 80 Kilometres away from Ho, the regional capital and 140km from Accra, the national capital. It shares boundaries with Keta municipality and Anloga District to the south, Ketu North to the east, South and Central Tongu Districts to the west, and to the north with Akatsi North and Agortime Ziope Districts

Population Structure

According to the 2021 Population and Housing Census, the population of the municipality was 92,494, made up of 53.4% female and 46.6% male. With a growth rate of 2.4, the population for the year 2025 is projected at 101,699.00. The majority of the population is into petty trading, farming and livestock keeping, with rice farming being a major agricultural activity. Xavi Bird-watching, Traditional Festivals and the Sitatunga (a rare endangered species of the antelope family) are some of the municipality’s tourist attractions.

Vision 

The vision of the municipality is to promote good local governance and accelerated human development for improved living standard of the people.

Mission

The Akatsi South Municipal Assembly exists to facilitate the improvement of the quality of life of the people through equitable provision of services for the total development of the district within the context of good governance.

Goals 

The goal of the municipality is to achieve an improvement in socio-economic development through the pursuance of infrastructure development and development of human capital whilst enhancing good governance.

Core Functions

For the purposes of achieving its objectives, the Akatsi South Municipal Assembly performs the following functions, among others, as provided for, under section 12 of the Local Governance Act, 2016, Act 936:

•        Exercises political and administrative authority in the municipality, promotes local economic development, provides guidance, gives direction to, and supervises the other administrative authorities in the municipality.

•        Performs deliberative, legislative and executive functions

•        Prepares the development plans of the municipality and submits same to the National Development Planning Commission for approval

•        Prepares the Annual Composite Budgets of the Assembly and submits same to the Minister of Finance for approval among others

•        Guides, encourages and supports sub-district local government bodies, public agencies and local communities to discharge their roles in the execution of approved development plan among others

•        Co-ordinates, integrates and harmonises the execution of programmes and projects under approved development plans for the municipality and any other development programmes promoted or carried out by Ministries, departments, public corporations and any other statutory bodies and non-governmental organisations in the municipality.

District Economy 

The majority of the people in the municipality are engaged in agriculture. The municipality has substantial agricultural resources which include large expanses of land suitable for crop cultivation and rearing of animals. The major economic activities include crop farming, livestock keeping, fishing and hunting, manufacturing, mining and quarrying, construction, wholesale and retail trade, and tourism. Other potential economic activities include sugar production, chili pepper cultivation, commercial mango production and aqua-culture.