The District is located to the South Western part of the Savannah Region of Ghana. It lies on longitude 1˚5’W and 2˚ 58’W and latitude 8˚32’N and 10˚2’N. The District was carved out of the West Gonja District in 2004. It shares boundaries in the South with Kintampo North Municipality in the Bono Region, West Gonja District to the West, Tamale Metro to the North and East Gonja to the East. The Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency of which the District is within was created in 1992.
The District covers 7,555km2 and is strategically linked to the Southern sector as the gate way to the Northern Regions (Savannah, Northern, North East, and Upper East). The District covers five Traditional Areas, namely the Buipe, Debre, Manpkang, Kusawgu, and Tuluwe Traditional Areas.
The district economy is dominated by the Agriculture sector employing, with crop and livestock farming account for about 86.3 % of the workforce. This is followed by the commercial and service sectors with about 8.2% and 5.5% respectively. The land is extremely fertile for agriculture and farming is normally intensive. Some crops grown are maize, sorghum, millet, groundnut, cowpea, soya beans, yam, rice, as well as cassava. Fishing and livestock are considered as supplementary activities to crop farming.
Large scale fishing is carried out at Yapei and Buipe on the White and Black Volta rivers respectively.