Brief History of WMA
The Wenchi Municipality is one of the twelve administrative Districts in the Bono Region. It was originally created as an ordinary District Assembly in 1988 when it was known as Wenchi District until the western part of the district was split off to create the Tain District in 2004 by Legislative Instrument LI (1471) of 1989. The District was later upgraded to a Municipality status by Legislative Instrument (LI1876) of 2007. The Wenchi Municipality shares boundaries with Kintampo South and Banda Districts to the North, Techiman Municipal and Techiman North District to the east, Sunyani West District to the south and Tain District to the west. The Municipality is located at the northeastern part of Bono Region and has Wenchi as its capital which is 29km from Techiman. The total land area of the Municipality is about 1,296.60 square kilometres and has a projected population of 113,956 (Projection based upon the 2010 Population and Housing Census Report) with a population density of 69.2. The Municipality is largely a rural population and has a predominantly an agrarian economy. Akans form the major ethnic group in the municipality and Twi is the language widely spoken by the people of the area. There are however some minority tribes in the municipality.
The Municipality is well connected to the neighbouring districts and serves as the economic hub within the enclave.
Cultural and Social Structure
The Municipality falls under the Wenchi Traditional area. The Annual festival of the traditional area, known as ‘Apor’ is celebrated lasting a week in March and April. The festival is meant to ritually purify the people and families and includes a variety of other traditional cultural activities. The ‘Apor’ and other festive celebrations could be well packaged and marketed to promote and generate income which will intend serve as research and tourism ground for the African-Americans in the diaspora.
Unfortunately, there is chieftaincy dispute in the traditional area which has made development in the area stagnant. The Municipal Security Council (MUSEC) has been monitoring events and instituting measures to maintain peace and security in the Municipality.
The Assembly has 43 members including the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), the Member of Parliament (MP), 29 elected members and 12 appointed Members. There are five Zonal Councils namely; Wenchi, Nchiraa, Subinso, Awisa and Asuogya Zonal Councils.