Markets Infrastructure
Market play very important role in the promotion of economic life of the people In the district. Apart from commercial trading in farm products and partly processed ones like cassava-dough, gari and local soap, other manufactured products both imported and locally produced are sold in the markets and shops. There are fully developed traditional markets at Kpando,Torkor and Kpando; and other smaller ones at Anfoega and Vakpo Each of these market centres are characterised by poor infrastructure and supporting facilities and therefore remain one of the challenges to the district.
 
Kpando Market
Kpando market is biggest among all the markets in the district and stretching over 1.5 hectares with 60% having permanent structures and 40 with temporary structures. Though the market has the potential for expansion, its limitation are the existence of residential buildings. It has an extensive sphere of influence which goes beyond the district boundaries covering Jasikan, Abotoase, and Koforidua, Somanya Ashiaman, Afram Plain and Accra. The market operates as a daily market though every fifth day is a market day.

Even though the market accounts for the major source of revenue (of over 25%) to the district, It has not received the best of attention over the years. Through the assistance of the Agricultural Sector investment Project (ASIP) some infrastructural developments were undertaken which resulted in the construction of market stalls and toilet facilities.

But this not withstanding, the situation in the market has not ameliorated. In the circumstances much remains to be done in order to improve upon the present condition of the market. One of the major problems is the muddy nature of the market ground during the rainy season and in many cases results In drastic decline of revenue realised per day. The market is therefore suffering from a lot of infrastructure deficiencies which must be addressed.

The poor state of Lorry Park attached to the market is less attractive to passengers more so during the rainy season or soon after heavy down pour. The lorry park and the market are rendered waterlogged and muddy making users very uncomfortable. The lorry park has a total land of 16 hectares with o 75 hectares being under usage though there are no physical barriers for expansion

Torkor Market
It is the second largest market in the district. The creation of the Volta Lake in 1964, coupled with the construction of the Lake Port attracted many migrant fishermen. Generally the Torkor market was developed from the fishery industry and was in the 1980s and 1990s a buoyant commercial centre. The Torkor market like the Kpando one has an extensive sphere of influence which goes beyond the district.

The deterioration of infrastructure level coupled with the general decline in the fish catch per unit of effort had reduced the influence of the one time brisk commercial centre. In spite of this, the operation of the pontoon which link Torkor to the Afram Plain is helping to sustain commercial activities in the market The market is therefore suffering from a lot of infrastructure deficiencies which must be addressed.

Anfoega Market
This is one of the smallest market but with high potential of revenue generation capacity. Unfortunately the topography of the area is one of the greatest limitations for expansion and relocation of the market. The market currently is operated under old and the best option is to consider dilapidated structures which are over aged.

The poverty line is the minimum amount of money that one needs to obtain the basic needs of life i.e. food, water, clothing shelter in 1999, the Ghana living Standard Survey calculated that one needed  at least seven hundred thousand Cedis (¢700,000) to buy enough food to survive and nine hundred thousand Cedis (¢900,000) to be able to buy food and pay for other basic needs. All those who had less than ¢700,000 were considered very poor. Those with less than ¢900,000 to spend for the year were considered poor. The ¢700,000 and ¢900,000 are what is referred to as the lower and upper limit of the poverty line.

The report further indicated that in terms of economic activity, poverty is by far highest among the food crop farmers accounting for 59.4%. The studies have also shown that women predominate in this sector making women very vulnerable to all kinds of exploitation. It is of interest to note that the incidence of poverty is also high among export farmers, informal sector employees and non-farm self-employed.

Using household assets ownership data from the Core Welfare Indicators Questionnaires (CWIQ) survey between 1997 and 2003 in describing the poverty trend in the country indicated that the pattern remains roughly the same for the periods. The survey showed that poverty is higher in rural than urban areas; and that urban employees in regular employment are relatively better off than their rural counterparts.

The report further asserted that workers in agriculture are poorer than those in other sectors. The 2004 annual progress report on the Implementation of the GPRS I indicated that the general poverty levels have declined by only 7% from 42% in 1997 to 35% in 2003 with an anticipated further decline in 2004 on account of targeted growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) driven by agricultural production.

The report concluded that the poorest among the poor have benefited less from growth which means that they have experienced lower increases in their incomes. Extrapolating this national data analysis to the district condition shows serious poverty implications for the district since about 62% of the population are engaged in crop farming with a high dependency rate. It is even more serious for the district since only 23% of the total population live in the urban area with the majority being unemployed.

In summary, the above premises suggest that the majority of the people in the district fall within the hard core poverty group. It is estimated that overall incidence or poverty in Kpando district is 44% with the rural incidence being 51% and urban 21%.

Revenue Sources
In addition to revenue generated by the Assembly from the market there other sources which are presented in the table below.  From the above table, the Assembly achieved only 50% of her internally budgeted revenue for 2002 and the largest contributor in absolute terms was from fees and fines. Similarly, in 2003, 2004 and 2005 the trend was the same with fees and fines being the largest contributor with negligible improved performance of 56%, 80% and 81 % from 2003, 2004 and 2005 respectively over the annual targeted estimates.From the table above the grant continue to be the greatest source of revenue to the Assembly and this situation may result in the assembly being plunged into liquidity problem.

Refer to tables in pdf file below.