Local market systems and their importance in District development (a case study of the Ahanta West District in Ghana)

One of the primary responsibilities conferred on District Assemblies under the Fourth Republican Constitution is the mobilisation and use of local resources for the overall development of the district. In the discharge of this responsibility, development efforts of most District Assemblies have always been geared towards increasing production in all sectors of the local economy to meet domestic consumption requirements and for export. It is however worth noting that increase in production per SC is meaningless if it does not get to the consumer. In the development continuum once production is increased, the next stage is to ensure that it becomes available to the user at the right place and at the right time. Even though it has been observed that the local market system is the primary channel through which goods and services are distributed in developing countries, planners and policy makers hardly give it the due recognition it deserves in the development efforts of most Third World Countries. As a result of this neglect, the internal distribution of goods is greatly impeded to the extent that where as serious glut of a particular good is being reported in one part of the country, people in other parts face acute shortage and endure exhorbitant prices for the same good. This study investigates into the importance of the local market system in the development of the Ahanta West District. Among several findings, it has been revealed that the Agona market is the only market in the district that traded extensively in both endogenous and exogenous goods, and the scope of the market extends beyond the district. Other markets experience a low level of commercial activity due to the limited range of goods they trade in and the limited sphere of influence they have. Secondly, even though the entire district depends on this market for goods and services, accessibility to the market is hampered by the poor road network and general transport system. On revenue generated from the markets it has been sufficiently proved chat the brisk commercial activities in the Agona market makes it a very important source of revenue to the district. A combination of these factors accounted for the generation of a keen interest by the Assembly to develop this market. Due to inadequate funds however, the pace of development has been quite slow. As a further step to help generate interest among investors to assist the Assembly with funds to develop the market, the study went further to assess the financial viability of the market using the Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Returns approach. To assess how sensitive the project would be to possible changes in certain variables such as the in-flow of capital and increase in the cost of investment a Sensitivity Analysis was also conducted. Following this evaluation, some recommendations were made aimed at improving the performance of the local market system in general and the development of the Agona market in particular. The recommendations are centred on three main areas namely improving physical access to markets, development of market places and improvement in market related revenue collection. Under each of these areas, detailed proposals on a number of action areas have been made. The study further spells out an implementation strategy on the development of the Agona market. It is however worth mentioning that the success of the market development project would be determined, to a large extent, by the implementation of other components of the district development plan. There is a close interrelationship between the respective components and the success or failure of one would have a direct or indirect impact on others. The implementation of the market development plan should not therefore be viewed in isolations but within the context of the overall development plan.

Source: KNUST