Who We Are
The Chereponi District was officially inaugurated on Friday February 29, 2008 with Chereponi as its capital. The District is one of the Six (6) administrative districts in the newly created North East Region and located between latitudes 100 101 S and 100 201 N eastwards and longitude 100 101 N and 100 201 S northwards. It shares boundaries with the Gushegu District to the West; Bunkpurugu-Nakpanduri District to the North; Saboba District to the South and The Republic of Togo to the East bordered by the River Oti. The District has a total land area of approximately 1,374.7sq km (2010 PHC).
Politically, Chereponi District is made up of one (1) Town and five (5) Area Councils. The Town Council is Chereponi while the Area Councils are Wenchiki, Tombu, Tambong, Nansoni and Wonjuga. The District has a total of169 settlements, 100 Unit Committees, 20 Electoral Areas, 31 Assembly members (20 elected and 11 Government appointees), a Member of Parliament and District Chief Executive. The District has just one (1) Constituency.
CHEREPONI DISTRICT MAP
Demographic Characteristic
The district had a total population of 87,176 in 2022. The projected population by 2025 is estimated to be about 94,807 (2022 PHC) with the male being 42,834 and female 44,342 with an inter-censal growth rate of 2.12 percent. The district’s share of the total population of the then North East Region is 13.2 percent. (2022 PHC). The fertility rate of the district is 4.3% whiles the crude death rate is 5.39% death per 1000 population. The district share of the population among urban and rural localities are 14,416 (16.5 %) and 72,760 (83.5%). This means majority of the population in the District reside in the rural communities. Males (35,799) form 49.2% of the total population (87,176) as against 50.8% (36,961) for females. (2022 PHC)
Population Distribution By Geographical Location
Politically, Chereponi District is made up of one (1) Town and five (5) Area Councils. The Town Council is Chereponi while the Area Councils are Wenchiki, Tombu, Tambong, Nansoni and Wonjuga. The Chereponi District in total has 169 settlements, 100 Unit Committees, 20 Electoral Areas, 31 Assembly members (20 elected and 11 Government appointees), a Member of Parliament and District Chief Executive. The district has one (1) Constituency (2022 PHC).
The district had a total of One Hundred and Sixty-Two (151) schools in the district; comprising of Sixty-Three (63) pre-schools, Sixty-Three (63) primary schools, Twenty-Four (24) Junior High Schools (JHS) and one Senior High School in the district. There has been an improvement in educational facilities which have been strategically located to serve more than one.
About 77.3 percent of the population aged 15 years and older are economically active while 23.7 percent are economically not active. Of the economically active population, 95.6 percent are employed while 4.4 percent are unemployed. For those who are economically not active, larger percentages (46.6) of them are students, 24.3% perform household duties and 4.1 percent are disabled or too sick to work. Seven out of ten (70.6%) unemployed are seeking work for the first time (2010 PHC).
Culture & Religion
The culture of a people influences their behavior, beliefs, dressing and other attributes of life that can have direct influence on their socio-economic development. The district is inhabited by two main tribal groups (Konkomba and Anufor) with different cultural values and practices.
Some cultural beliefs and practices are constraints to development. For instance, that children should not eat eggs because they would grow to become thieves is common among the Northern tribes. In addition, some cultural values and practices of the people such as early child betrothal tend to perpetuate illiteracy, poverty, disease and ignorance, which are all chief evils of socio-economic and political development.
The Anufor have two major festivals celebrated during the year (Krubi and Fire). Festivals observed by the Konkomba are Yam Festival, Pito Festival and the Fire Festival. Traditional religion is practiced among many people. Superstition and soothsaying surround all festivals and funeral performance. The quantum of foodstuff and animals wasted during these festivities and funeral rites turns to deepen the poverty levels of the people.
Sometimes, the lack of ethnic homogeneity turns to breed unhealthy competition for resources and a constraint to socio-cultural organization and development. To solve the above problem, the major ethnic groups that are found in the district should be encouraged to inter-marry.
Religious Affiliation
Before the advent of both Western and Eastern Religions, the inhabitants were mostly Traditional Religious believers. Their culture was deeply enshrined in their customs and beliefs. The result of this is still manifested in the numerous traditional festivals still practiced in the Chereponi District. These practices are no longer pronounced in the district as a result of the ethnic diversity and the influence of both Eastern and Western cultures giving birth to Islam and Christianity. The people of Chereponi are affiliated with three main religions. Namely; Islam 57%, Christianity 21.4%, Traditionalist 17.4% and non-believers 4.2%. This notwithstanding, majority of the Muslims and the Christians still practice little of the traditional religion. This can be seen during the celebration of major festivals that are purely traditional.
Education
The Ghana Education Service seeks to create an enabling environment in all educational instruments and management positions that will facilitate effective teaching and learning, and efficiency in management for the attainment of the goals of the district. Therefore, the District Directorate of Education seeks to ensure that all children in the district who are of school going age and or out of school are encouraged back to school and provided with the necessary education and training through effective management of resources to make education delivery in the district relevant to the human resource needs of the district and the nation at large
The District Education Directorate operates in nine (9) circuits namely: Chereponi East, Chereponi West, Nansoni, Tambong, Tombu, Wenchiki, Wonjuga, Garinkuka and Mayamam circuits. Each circuit consists of several numbers of schools under the supervision of a circuit supervisor. There are one hundred and fifty (150) schools in the district; comprising of sixty-three (63) pre-schools, sixty-three (72) primary schools, twenty-three (23) Junior High Schools (JHS) and one Senior High School in the district. There has been an improvement in educational facilities which have been strategically located to serve more than one community over the years.
Free Senior High School
The Government of Ghana has given full effect to SDG 4.1 with the implementation of a Free SHS Policy in 2017 and has become an essential part of Ghana’s educational system. The policy’s core themes of access, equity and equality fulfil the United Nations modified Sustainable Development Goals, where member countries amalgamate those themes in their educational systems to certify adequate learning experiences for students.
The program, is anchored on the pillars below:
- Removal of cost barriers
- Remove Cost Barriers through the absorption of fees approved by GES council
- Expansion of infrastructure
- Expand physical school infrastructure and facilities to accommodate the expected increase in enrolment.
- Improvement in Quality and Equity
- Improve quality through provision of core textbooks and supplementary readers, teacher rationalization and deployment, etc.
- Development of Employable Skills
- Improve competitiveness of Ghanaian Students to match the best in the World.
Economy
The district’s economy is purely rural and agrarian. Between 40-50 percent of land area is used for agriculture purposes. Acquisition of land for farming purposes is not a problem in the district. The district had a total of 7,116 households. About 91 percent of these households are engaged in agriculture. The dominant agriculture activities are crop farming (98%) and livestock rearing (81%) and the least agriculture activities been fish farming (0.8%) and tree planting (0.9%) (2010 PHC).
The economic activities of importance are commerce and agro-based small-scale industries. Agriculture is predominantly small-scale with an average farm size of two acres per farmer. These farmers produce primary commodities mainly for home consumption. The major crops produced include millet, sorghum, beans, maize, soya beans, rice, and groundnuts. A few farmers cultivate large acreages of maize, soya beans and rice for commercial purposes.
Other food crops that are cultivated on very small scale in the district include cassava, yam and vegetables (okro, tomatoes and pepper). Some crops that are cultivated for commercial purposes in the district are cotton, groundnuts, soya-bean, sesame, fonio and tomatoes. Of late, sesame and fonio are gaining grounds as potential cash crops in the district. The availability of irrigable dams in the district delivered by the Action AID, GSOP and the Flagship programme, One Village One Dam makes it possible for small scale dry season vegetable cultivation in recent times.
The major marketing centers in the district are Chereponi, Wenchiki, Wonjuga and Garinkuka where most of the agricultural commodities are sold. The location of the district is a potential for marketing and trading with the neighboring districts and Mongo Market in the Republic of Togo. Commercial Agricultural Mechanization and Services centres (AMSEC) is a potential in the district, and can increase production and create employment in about 60 communities for over 2000 people especially women. The main means of carting goods and services across these market centers are: donkey carts, the use of motor bikes, tricycles, bicycles and tractor alongside some commercial vehicles.
Trading Outlets
There is no major trading outlet in the district. Most of the essential needs of the people are brought from Yendi, traveling quite a long distance (i.e. 90 -km away) or nearby Togo. There are no depots but there is the presence of mini supermarkets dotted around the town. It should be noted that in almost every village, one could get someone selling some basic needs of the people. Petty trading activities are on the increase in the district
Tourism
The district has several undeveloped sites of historic, scientific and aesthetic importance, which have the potential of serving as tourist attraction sites, thereby throwing out more jobs and expanding the local economy. These include:
- The crocodile ponds in Chereponi and Nansoni
- Ruins of German Bridge Linking Ghana and Togo during World War II
- The river Oti
- Annual Krubi Festival – Celebrated on the 27th day of Ramadan
- Mingali Dance – Celebrated a market day immediately after the Ramadan festival.
- Fire Festival – celebrated on the 9th day of the first month of traditional calendar.
Infrastructure
Transportation Network, Settlements and Other Built Environment
Most houses (about 80 percent) are built with either land crate or mud walls and roofed with either aluminum or iron sheets or grass. The housing environment in the district is characterized by poor drains, unkempt surroundings including open cesspools for sewers, exposed foundations, poor ventilation and leaking roofs. Given a household size of 7.9 persons, which is above the national average of 5.0 and a room occupancy of 1.5 persons, which is well below the national norm of 2.5 persons, the housing problem in the district is qualitative rather than quantitative. Facilities in houses such as water, electricity, kitchen, and toilet are virtually non-existent.
The Guinea Savannah vegetation is degraded in several locations. These areas include areas where agricultural activity is predominant and severely degraded lands that have become uncultivable because of iron pan or where the soils are shallow due to rockiness, trees sparsely populate in such areas. The vegetation is grass interspersed with drought resistant trees. The common tree species are the Rosewood, “Dawadawa” and Shea and Nim trees. The vegetation is greenish only in rainy season and very dry in the harmattan period.
Topography & Drainage
The topography of the district is undulating with few hills, which provide a good flow for run-off water. The district is underlain by Voltain rocks normally suitable for rural water supply -boreholes. The soils are quite good along valleys.
During the raining season, water normally drains to the Oti River, as well as dams and streams present in the district. There are however many incidences of large volumes of water that collects on roadsides, washing roads out or flooding to prevent proper transportation; usually in August and September.
Geology & Soils
The Voltarian shale underlies the whole District. From literature, most of the soils in the interior Savannah and the transitional zones developed over shale, which contains abundant iron concretions and iron pan in their sub-soils. These soils constitute the groundwater laterite and occupy about 50% of the interior Savannah (Adu, 1969). The groundwater laterite, due to impervious iron pan or clay pan in the sub-soil is characterized by water logging at the peak of the rains.
The soils are quite good along the valleys. Alluvial valleys suitable for rice production exist in some areas of the district. There is considerable soil erosion in the district. This is due to bad farming practices and rampant bush burning; thereby making the soil infertile and competition for land becomes akin. This is evident in the recent clashes between Chekosis and Konkombas over a piece of land in the district.
