Commerce/Service

The commerce/service sector is the second largest employer of the District’s labour force after agriculture.  It encapsulates a wide range of tertiary activities.  These include retailing and petty trading, transport and financial services and services provided by civil servants. The sector is dominated by informal small scale trading, especially in agricultural produce and limited modern consumer products.  It is characterized by family ownership.

The District has six (6) periodic markets.  These market centres are located in Tabiesi, Kojokperi, Wogu, Issa, Sazie and Bussie.  However, these markets are not so brisk, as revealed by the volume of endogenous and exogenous inflows of goods to and from the markets. Most of the settlements in the District depend on Wa Municipality for their shopping needs.

The trading activities in the District particularly in the periodic market centres form one of the major sources of revenue to the District Assembly.  Thus the improvement of market infrastructure has the potential of boosting the District’s revenue generation capacity. The transport sub-sector plays a crucial role in the district’s economy with regard to getting the produce to the market as well as supplying inputs and other needs of the people in deprived areas.  Nevertheless, the sub-sector is poorly developed.

There are three (3) financial institutions in the district. Two credit unions; Wa Workers co-operative credit union, Community co-operative credit union in the District capital- Issa and GN bank at Bussie. The main focuses of these financial institutions are to;

• Provide loans for commerce and small scale industries

• Provide security for client savings

These institutions provided some needed support for the various economic sectors in the District particularly agriculture. As could be seen from the agricultural and industrial sub sectors, the people still depend on their savings to finance their businesses and farming and credit from these institutions.  

Another important area of the services sector is the formal sector comprising civil and public servants. These are mainly in the government, NGOs and other line agencies but logistics, inadequate offices and residential accommodation are greatly affecting their performances. Moreover, the decentralised departments are scattered between Daffiama and Issa, thereby causing inefficiency among the department. There is the need to establish linkages between this sector and other sectors of the local economy to facilitate growth.

Commodity Flows In (Endogenous) and Out (Exogenous) of the District

Agriculture is the mainstay of the people in the District employing about 85% of the population. Food crop production in this sector largely remains subsistence with low output levels and is also predominantly rain fed and its performance is largely influenced by weather conditions from year to year. With the deteriorating climatic conditions, primarily due to global warming, annual growth rate in agricultural value added has been on the decline.

The commodity flow is measured primarily in the form of the quantity of goods, commodity value and the mode of transport. It helps us determine which markets people have access to (physical proximity) within and outside the District. It also provides a comprehensive understanding on the extent to which these markets are able to serve the population in terms of enabling them to sell home-produced goods and services which they specialize in and to buy goods and services which they rely on others for.

In this analysis, market surveys were undertaken primarily to determine the extent of natural interaction between the market centres and their surrounding areas. It was also done to determine the trading position of the district that is the nature of exchange between the district and the rest of the region. A survey involving sellers and buyers at the various markets was conducted. Both exogenous and endogenous flows were classified under agricultural and industrial goods and their monetary values were computed.

Exogenous flows refer to the exchange of goods between the District and the rest of the country. These flows can either be exogenous inflows (goods from external sources coming into the District- imports) and exogenous outflows (goods leaving the district to outside destinations- exports).

Endogenous flows refer to internal exchange of goods between settlements in the District, irrespective of where they are produced

There exist five (5) weekly markets in the DBID with Bussie and Kojokpere markets being the most important markets in the District due to the volume of commodities that enter and leave there. The main trading partners are Wa, Nadowli and Naro.

The basic function of the markets is retailing of agricultural produce (maize, yam, beans, groundnut, smoked fish, sheep, goats, poultry birds, shear nuts, rice, millet, mangoes etc) mainly produced within the District and manufacturing items (clothing, plastics and cosmetics) coming from other Districts.

Bussie market

This market is located in Bussie and has its market days weekly. In general, crops, animals and a variety of manufactured items are traded. The goods are mostly from surrounding areas within the District and other places outside the |District, mostly Wa and Naro.

The volume of trade measured in monetary terms of goods (inflow and outflow), to and from the Bussie market is presented in Table 1.33. The volume of traded commodities shows that Bussie market is one of the largest markets within the District and has a greater sphere of influence in the District’s economy.

Exogenous flows

Exogenous inflows refer to the flow of commodities from outside the District to Bussie market. These inflows are in the form of manufactured items and a few agricultural products. Most of the manufactured items come from Wa.

Exogenous outflow is the movement of goods from the market centre to areas outside the District. Farm produce constitute the bulk of total outflows from the Bussie market.

From table 1.33, a total net flow of +¢4064.00 was recorded which indicate that the District is a net exporter of agricultural products. However, a total of -¢960.00 was recorded for industrial goods indicating that the District is a net importer of industrial goods.

Endogenous flows

Endogenous inflows represent the movement of goods from within the District to the Bussie market. As indicated in figure 1.9, farm produce forms the bulk of the endogenous inflows.

The endogenous outflow refers to the movement of goods from the Bussie market to places within the District. Like the inflows, the endogenous outflows are mostly made up of farm produce with manufactured items forming an insignificant proportion of the total outflows from the Bussie market.

Graphical presentation of both the endogenous inflows and outflows to and from Bussie market are shown in figures 1.9 and 1.10. It can be seen that the Bussie market serves most of its adjoining communities such as Balenia, Owlo, Daffiama, Fian etc. and also serve the other major market centres such as Issa.

kojokpere market

In terms of volume of trade, it is the second important market in the district. It is a weekly market located at kojokpere on the trunk road to Tumu.

Buyers and sellers troop in from areas within the district like chala, jolinyiri, issaetc and outside the district like Wa to trade in this market.

Endogenous flows

Like the Bussie market, the endogenous inflows of the Kojokpere market are made up of farm produce and the endogenous outflows, mostly manufactured items.

Graphical illustrations of the endogenous flows of Kojokpere market are shown in figures 1.13 and 1.14.It can be observed from the graphical representations that the Kojokpere market also attracts goods and services from communities such as Bananyiri, Jempensi, Funsi, Chala, Issa, Jolinyiri, Tabiasi, etc. at the same time commodities flow from this market to these communities. It must however be noted that all the roads linking these communities to Kojokpere market are un-motorable especially in the raining season.

Tabiesi, Wogu and Issa markets

Although trading activities in these three (3) markets is not brisk they still provide significant services to the settlements immediately surrounding communities.  The three markets exhibit similar features as that of Bussie and Kojokpere with farm produce forming a bulk of their exogenous outflows and a few of manufactured products mostly being inflows. The details of the market survey conducted in these markets are illustrated in tables 1.35, 1.36 and 1.37 respectively.

Tabiesi market

Exogenously, both agricultural and industrial goods flow from the Tabiesi market to Naro and the Wa market. The volume of goods transported from Tabiesi markets to Naro and the Wa markets are shown in table 1.35 below.  Graphically, it can be observed from  that both agricultural and industrial goods are normally transported to and from the Tabiasi market.

Wogu market

Exogenously, goods normally flow from the Wogu market to the Naro market in the Nadowli-Kaleo District. Both agricultural and industrial goods are transported from the market to the Naro market. Table 1.36 further present the volume of goods between the two markets in monetary terms.

Issa market

Exogenously goods flows from the Issa market to two major external markets thus the Wa market and the Nadowli market in the Nadowli-Kaleo district. It must however be noted that the road from Issa to Nadowli is not in good shape which hampers the smooth transportation of goods between the two markets. The goods transported are mostly agricultural products such as cereals, vegetables, tubers, fish/meat, legumes etc.

The volume of goods flowing between these markets can be enhanced if constructive steps are taken by the assembly to address the poor road network system and the myriad of challenges facing the agricultural sector in the district. Table 1.37 below presents the volume of goods and services in monetary terms between Issa and the markets in Wa and Nadowli. Figure 1.16 and 1.17 below show how goods flows among the three markets.

Issa market (Endogenous Flows)

Like the other markets, Issamarket also serve the neighboring communities surrounding it. Commodities flows into and out of (endogenous outflows) the Issa market from communities such as Wugo, Duong, kparidebuo, fian etc.

DBI Trade Balance

The District’s trade balance is the difference in value between exogenous outflows and exogenous inflows. The trade balance was established based on the following assumptions:

1. All outflows  of exogenous goods are considered as exports

2. All exogenous inflows are taken to be imports

Mathematically, trade balance is given as

Trade Balance = Exports - Imports

Following analysis of the commodity flows of the markets studied, it revealed that total exogenous outflows were +11,731.00 whiles that of total exogenous inflows was -6828.00. This gives a trade balance of +4,903.00. The above analysis using the various market figures is illustrated in table 1.38 below.

The overall trade balance of +4,903.00 indicates that the district is generally a net exporter of agricultural goods, even though they are generally raw agricultural products. Measure to increase the value of these raw produce should seek to among others encourage the development of agro based industrial activities to add more value to the agricultural products. However, care must be taken in order not to damage the environment.The poor road network system in the districtalso affects the volume of goods traded within and outside the district. For instance, the district currently has nosingle tarred road.

The conditions of most feeder roads are also in bad shape. Communities like Kamehegu, Kenkele,Kanato and Pizagaare inaccessible especially in the rainy seasons where most feeder roads become unmotorable.Some of the goods (especially vegetables) meant for distant markets such as the Wa market normally perished before reaching its destination due to the nature of the road. This further worsens the already precarious plight of farmers in the district.