By Benjamin Adamafio Commey
Accra, May 21, GNA – A Local Governance Bill has proposed higher population thresholds for creating districts, municipalities and metropolises to curb proliferation of administrative areas.
The proposed legislation, already approved by Cabinet and expected to be passed next year, replaces fixed population benchmarks with percentage-based thresholds tied to national population levels.
Prof. Kwamena Ahwoi, Chairman of the Technical Committee of the Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee (IMCC) on Decentralisation, disclosed this at a Sensitisation and Policy Orientation Workshop on Decentralisation and Local Governance for media editors in Accra on Tuesday.
He said the existing thresholds were set in 1989 using the 1984 census of 12.4 million people and were now outdated, with Ghana’s population estimated at about 35 million.
Under the current framework, a population of 75,000 qualifies an area for district status, 95,000 for municipality status and 250,000 for metropolis status, a situation he said had contributed to an “explosion” in the creation of districts over time.
“After every census, people look at the numbers and say, ‘Ah, we have hit 75,000, we want our own district. But 75,000 out of 12.4 million is not the same as 75,000 out of 35 million,” he said.
Prof. Ahwoi explained that the bill converts the thresholds into percentages of the national population, adding that recalculations produced 0.6 per cent for districts, one per cent for municipalities and two per cent for metropolises.
“So, what we have done in the law in the making is to convert the 75,000 as a percentage of 12.4 million, and it gave us 0.6 per cent of 35 million.
“For the municipality, it gave us one per cent and for metropolis, it gave us two per cent. We have inserted those percentages in the law rather than the figures,” he said.
Prof. Ahwoi said the reforms were aimed at ensuring sustainability in local governance and preventing unnecessary fragmentation, while introducing new accountability structures, including Budget and Environmental Sustainability Subcommittees in Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to support efforts against illegal mining.
“Dealing with galamsey is a central government matter now and yet the assemblies are all in the galamsey areas.
“We believe that if we give them a role, even if they don’t eliminate the practice, they can help in curbing it,” he said
The bill also proposes District Public Interest and Accountability Committees to strengthen oversight of public resource use at the local level.
“It is a myth that decentralisation solves the problem of corruption. If you decentralise without the necessary checks and balances at the bottom, you may not be bettering governance. You may be making governance worse,” said Prof. Ahwoi.
The bill also provides for formalised monthly consolidated allowances for assembly members and renames the Office of the District Assembly as the Office of the District Coordinating Director, while emphasising balance between local autonomy and central control.
“Decentralisation implementation must ensure a delicate balance between local autonomy and central control,
“We want the districts to be autonomous, but we don’t want them to be so autonomous that they will risk breaking up the country,” Prof. Ahwoi stressed.
Dr. Esther Ofei Aboagye, Member of the IMCC Technical Committee, said the 2026–2030 National Decentralisation Policy was developed after extensive 2025 consultations following the expiry of the previous policy in 2024.
“We needed to put new energy and revitalise decentralisation so that citizens would become excited again about local governance and participation.
“If decentralisation works at the local level, then national governance should also work,” she noted.
Dr Aboagye said the policy aligned with Ghana’s development planning cycle and the Sustainable Development Goals, and identified six thematic areas including political, administrative and fiscal decentralisation, planning, local economic development and participation.
“Participation in district-level elections has hovered around 35 per cent for years, and we want to improve that by getting more citizens, especially young people, involved in governance,” she said.
Dr Aboagye added that fiscal reforms would ensure “funds follow functions” and improve internally generated revenues.
Dr. Gameli Kewuribe Hoedoafia, Executive Secretary of the IMCC on Decentralisation, urged the media to focus more on local governance and service delivery by engaging Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies directly rather than concentrating on national-level officials.
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey
Reporter: Benjamin Adamafio Commey