Overview

Kpandai district is one of the districts created in the year 2008 by the legislative instrument (LI) 1845 and was formally inaugurated on the 12th day of March 2008. Originally it was formerly part of the then-larger East Gonja District in 1988, until the eastern part of the district was split off by a decree of president John Agyekum Kufuor on 29 February 2008 to create Kpandai District.; thus the remaining part has been retained as East Gonja Municipal District. The district assembly is located in the southern part of Northern Region and has Kpandai as its capital town

Geographical Location

The district is located at the South-Eastern corner of the Northern Region of Ghana and shares boundaries with East Gonja to the west, Nanumba South to the north, Nkwanta North and Nkwanta South to the East and Krachi West to the south. The district has a total land surface area of 2,102 Km Square and a distance of 214Km travel to tamale the regional capital.

Ethinicity

The district is inhabited by a number of ethnic groups with the present figure at 24. The major ones are the Nawuris, the Konkombas, and the Nchumurus. Other groups with large presence include the Basares, the Kotokolis and the Battoirs(Ewes).

Population

The district is largely rural, with approximately 90% of the population engaged in local agriculture. As of the 2011 census, the district population was 126,213 with 62,881 males

and 63,332 females and included at least 24 different ethnic groups with a growth rate of 2.9% per annum. The district population currently stands at 131,570 which has an urban population of 11,394 representing 9.9 percent and rural population 119,808 representing 90.1 percent.

Vegetation

The vegetation is basically Guinea Savanna and there is progressive lost of forest covers as a result of bush fires and logging especially for fire wood and charcoal. Most streams are dried up in most part of the year.

Some communities in the district are located permanently on the Volta Lake and can therefore be accessed only with boats.

Agriculture

The major occupation in the district is agricultural, forestry and fishery employing 85.7 percent of the population. Out of this 92.4 percent of males and 78.9 percent of females are into farming. The sector consists of crop farmers, fishermen, and livestock farmers. The main crops cultivated are yams, cereals and Legumes.

Farming in the area however is still at a primary stage of development characterized by use of crude and inefficient implements. Farming is not yet mechanized in the district and the people still practice rain fed agriculture.

Although the district has large expanse of water resources for irrigation, very few farmers practice irrigation in the district. This is largely due to the absence of irrigation facilities and partly due to limited knowledge of farmers on irrigation development.

Sanitation

The sanitation situation in the Kpandai district is nothing to write home about. People still defecate in the open and there are refuse heaps and public toilets unattended to. People continue to dispose garbage or waste materials indiscriminately. More information and education on waste management is urgently needed in the district to avert any outbreaks.

Water

On water access to quality drinking water is still a challenge despite efforts been made. The district has about total of 85 boreholes, and 8 small town water systems at Kpandai, Kabonwule and Loloto which still inadequate. People largely depend on rain water and streams especially people along the rivers. Despite the challenges, there has been a decline in the number of guinea worm cases in district. Since 2007 the district has registered no case but this does not propose that the pandemic is completely eradicated; more efforts and education are still needed to completely eradicate the plague.

Environment

The physical environment exhibits mixed features typical of the forest and savannah woodland. This is attributed to the physical location of the district, which falls within the South-Eastern zone of Ghana

Road Network

The state of roads in the district is poor. The district does not have a single tar road linking the district capital Kpandai. The rest of the road network is made up of feeder roads which are dusty during the dry season and rendered almost impassable during the rainy season. Some communities in the western parts of the district is cut off, and can only be accessed through neighboring district Salaga in the East Gonja District of the Savana Region and Yeji in the Bono East Region.

Energy

There has been significant increase electricity coverage in the district. Most of the big towns in the district have been connected to the national grid and that has significantly improved community members engagement in small scale enterprises.

Communication

There is no TV reception in the district and most people rely on satellite dishes with decoders for television services. Mobile phone services are provided by Mobile Telecommunication Network Ltd MTN, VODAFONE and AIRTEL-TIGO. Not all the facilities or communities has network. There are two radio stations in the district:

1. Asaase FM

2. Star FM

Education

The district is estimated to have more than 150 communities that are without schools; it means the district still needs more schools to be established in the communities to make education accessible to every community. The district is blessed to have 282 schools, 4 secondary schools and 1 Health Assistant Training School.

Literacy rate is higher at the lower age. At age 11-14, the illiteracy rate is higher (6,871) which increases to (7,114) in the 15-19 age group and start falling from there onwards upto age 55-59.

Pupil Teacher Ratio (PTR) is at unacceptable levels of 250:1 and 105:1 at KG and Primary respectively.

This calls for more teachers in the district. It therefore implies that the district should sponsor more teachers into the Teacher Training Colleges to augment the trained teachers’ situation in the schools.

MARKET CENTRES 34E

district map

facilities

district profile

Health facilities under kpandai district

The district is sub-divided into Five (5) sub-districts; namely Kpandai, Kumdi, Kitare, Kabonwule and Sabonjida sub-districts. This sub-division is for purposes of health care delivery and not administrative

There are Forty-one (41) functional health facilities in the district. These include Two (2) Hospitals, Ten (10) Health Centers and Twenty-Eight (28) Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) Compounds.

All the health facilities offer a 24-hour services to the communities they serve.

The Salaga, Kete-Krach and Bimbila district hospitals are the closed neighboring hospitals.

The district health directorate has two ambulances at two sub-districts (Kitare and Sabonjida sub-districts) donated by the Kpandai Member of Parliament. Those two subdistricts again took delivery of two motorking ambulances from regional health directorate to facilitate and enhance the referral system. Bankamba CHPS and Buya Health center also recently took delivery two motorking tricycle ambulances from regional health directorate.

sub-district and its population

Heard to reach communities

Majority of the communities in the district are surrounded by water. About 15% to 30% of communities in the district are hard to reach especially during the raining season. This makes service delivery to such communities very challenging and frustrating.