ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Prospects and challenges of greening the Kumasi Metropolis

Kumasi Metropolis is currently experiencing a loss of biodiversity which results in poor green space services and facilities. Most public and private open spaces, forests, wetlands and greenbelts have been encroached by land developers. The main objective of the study was to investigate the prospects and challenges of Urban Green Space Development in the Kumasi Metropolis. This was achieved by analysing the underlying strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats for management of urban green spaces in the Kumasi Metropolis. The study adopted the case study method,in order to understand the situation of green spaces managementin the Kumasi Metropolis. Five out of ten communities exhibiting significant green spaces facilities and services in the Kumasi Metropolis wereselected for the study. These are; Ahinsan Estate, Santasi, Kaase, Adiembra and Ayigya. All the relevant variables needed for the study were identified and explained through a literature review after which the methodology to solicit the necessary data and information to address the research questions was done Administration of questionnaires to households in these communities enabled the researcher to understand the household’s perception and opinion of green space management. Furthermore, interviews were conducted in some selected institutionsthat deal with environmental management. These include the Town and Country Planning Department and Environment Protection Agency and Traditional authorities among others. The study revealed some differences in managing green spaces among residents from these communities as well as institutions. In general, management ofgreen spaces and facilities in Kumasi is not up to expectations. Individuals, households, institutions, businesses (commercial entities), politicians and Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA)do not tend to place high priority ongreen spaces in the development of the Metropolis. As such, people have poor attitude towards green spaces. Coupled with this are inefficiencies in service provision byKumasi Metropolitan Assembly. The Departments within the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly that are responsible for managing the green space services and facilities are also under-resourced. This weak institutional incapacity in managing green spaces results in weak coordination among stakeholders, boundaries of stool/skin land and inadequate security of land tenure among others. These issues individually and cumulatively lead to environmental problems, disputes, conflicts and endless litigation which in turn affect the effectiveness in the overall management of green spaces in the city. Some recommendations pointed to the need for intensive public education to promote a positive attitude for green space management in Kumasi. In addition, enforcement of the environmental by-laws, physical planning codes and standards are also recommended to institutions responsible for the management of green spaces in the Kumasi Metropolis.

Source: KNUST
The prospects and challenges of guidance services in Senior High Schools – Kwabre East District as a Case Study

The core objective of achieving an effective and comprehensive Guidance and Counselling service in Ghanaian schools is a challenge that must be resolved to enable the citizens of this nation to enjoy its benefits. The present approach to providing guidance and counselling service in schools has not been responsive to societal needs since it is saddled with challenges, making the prospects bleak. This study adopted the qualitative research methodology with questionnaire administration and interview to gather data from 15 Guidance and Counselling Coordinators and 270 Students (149 males and 121 females) in six Senior High Schools in the Kwabre East district of Ashanti Region, Ghana. The objective was to investigate how the guidance and counselling services offered in Kwabre East Senior High Schools work to help the students, the type of services that are available to the students and to also identify and describe the major problems or conditions that prevent students from accessing guidance and counselling services in the schools. The study revealed that guidance and counselling when properly streamlined would help curb some of the problems students face in schools. The challenges the students face include shyness, arrogance, lack of information on the part of guidance and counselling officers and non-existence of counselling units in some schools. To enhance and improve guidance and counselling services in the school, more needs to be done to ensure that guidance and counselling is properly accepted and patronised by students.

Source: KNUST
Prospects and challenges of interdepartmental collaborations in running professional development programmes in KNUST

The collaboration existing within the various departments in the University (KNUST) in the development of Professional development programmes is unsubstantial. The aim of this research is to examine the prospects and challenges of interdepartmental collaboration in running Professional Development Programmes (PDPs) in KNUST. The study reviewed pertinent literature and adopted a descriptive case study design. Purposive sampling was used to select four units namely Bureau of Integrated Rural Development, Department of Food Science, National Institute of Mathematical Sciences, and The Short Courses/Programmes Unit for the study. The data for the study was obtained from heads of the units using interviews. The study examined respondents’ characteristics, challenges of interdepartmental collaboration, benefits derived from interdepartmental collaboration in Professional Development Programmes and explored the factors that can influence a successful interdepartmental collaboration in professional development programmes in KNUST. The study found among other things that interdepartmental collaboration in the running of PDPs in KNUST is fraught with challenges such as lack of institutional support, lack of teamwork, ineffective collaborative efforts from other departments, selfishness of some departments and lack of understanding within departments in the University. It was found that the programmes come with benefits to the individuals involved in the facilitation of it, the departments that are engaged in it and the university at large. It was therefore strongly recommended that the university makes it a matter of policy for all departments to engage in the running of PDPs.

Source: KNUST
Prospects and Challenges of Mobile Banking in Ghana

Today, the advancement of mobile technologies has provided an opportunity for financial service providers in introducing new financial innovations. One of the emerging financial innovations introduced by financial providers is mobile banking or m-banking. This study evaluates the customer’s perspective of the adoption or introduction of m-banking in Ghana. Questionnaires were administered to customers of banks to obtain their perspective on m-Banking. A sample of 100 students (customers) selected at random were employed for this study. The customer’s perception was found to be overwhelmingly positive. The most appreciated feature was ubiquity and the overview over bank account. Fast reaction to market developments often cited as one of the most attractive feature of mobile banking did not find high appreciation. Several factors including technical and security standards, regulatory and supervisory issues and business and legal issues were found to be the main factors that might hinder mobile banking implementation in Ghana. Connectivity and secure communication platform and encrypted messaging system were found to be the factors that would enhance mobile banking implementation in Ghana.

Source: KNUST
Prospects and challenges of public private partnership in car park management in Kumasi: (case of KMA and gold street real estate consult)

Public Private Partnership (PPP) has become a major approach for government to procure goods and services for many nations. However, concerns are often raised about the partnership between a public entity and private ones as a result of their motives of operation. Public entities often operate on a low profit base with private entities being profit oriented organisations. This necessitated the study of a partnership between KMA and Gold Street in the provision of car parks in the Kumasi Metropolis. Literature was reviewed on Public Private Partnership (PPP) types and mode of operation. Five (5) methods were identified as well as the challenges and prospects of PPP and matched again data collected from the field. Data for the study was obtained from primary and secondary sources. Purposive sampling procedure was used to select the major people involved in using a particular method in the district. Data collected from the survey was collated, synthesized and analyzed to provide the reference point for analysis. Key findings included:  Contract Management is the type of partnership been used by KMA and Gold Street.  The partnership has helped ensured the generation of revenue to the Assembly and security for the car park users.  Bureaucracy and delay in release of funds are the main challenges of the partnership.  There is a high potential for revenue generation if challenges are addressed Education of car park users on the operations of the partnership as well as a need for timely release of funds was some of the key recommendations.

Source: KNUST
Prospects and challenges of rental housing in Greater Accra Region

Rental accommodation has usually been associated with low income households but it has also become the main form of housing for middle-income households and new urban residents of all income levels (Salmen, 1987). Research has shown that renting and sharing clearly is a feature of the earlier stages of the life cycle. Tenants tend to be younger than owners and are often single: students, recent migrants, simple wage-workers, factory workers or single professionals (UNCHS, 2003:2). With an urban population of 43.8 per cent in Ghana according to the 2000 Population Housing Census and still rising, the challenge of providing accommodation-a basic necessity for the urban population cannot be ignored or left to nature particularly that of rental housing. Data (1996) said ‘to ignore rental housing given that half of the population are living in these dwellings is simply being irresponsible’. Despite attempts made by governments of Africa immediately after independence in the early 1960s to provide affordable housing to the citizenry to increase the level of homeownership, renting is on the ascendency in several countries. The study therefore sought to find out the state of rental housing in Greater Accra Region (GAR), who the landlords and renters are and the prospects and challenges of rental housing in the region. Geographically, the study covered Greater Accra. This is because from the 2000 Population Housing Census (GSS, 2005), the most urbanized region is GAR and since rental housing is more prevalent in the urban area, the choice of the region will be useful for generalization of findings. Explanatory research design was used for the study. The choice of explanatory research approach for this study was influenced by the goal of the study; to seek a better understanding of the current state of rental housing in Ghana as well as what influences rent charges and rental choices. The study employed both probability and non-probability sampling techniques. Although rental housing is a neglected feature, it has the potential of boosting the revenue base of the nation. It must therefore be tapped. The study concluded that, the major challenge confronting rental housing in Ghana is the neglect of the sector by government. This neglect has affected the effective and efficient functioning of the sector which has the potential of helping to address the housing need of the nation while providing income to the individual and the nation.

Source: KNUST
Prospects and challenges of sukuk (non-interest bond) implementation in ghana

The purpose of this study is to examine the potential challenges and benefits Ghana can gain from sukuk (a non-interest bond). The government of Ghana is currently battling with debt crisis, and the private sector is competing with the government for domestic funds, forcing interest rates to go high and thereby making it difficult for private businesses to ascertain funds. Sukuk (Islamic, non-interest, or interest-free bonds) is an Islamic financial instrument that operates like conventional bonds. The objectives of this study are to assess the potential challenges of sukuk in Ghana, to find out if the Ghana government can benefit from sukuk, and to find out if businesses can also benefit from sukuk. Questionnaires are administered for experts to respond, and a focused group discussion (FGD) is arranged online for experts to discuss the topic. The data collected via questionnaires are analyzed with SPSS 20.0 and that of FGD are analyzed thematically. The results are then discussed thereof. Findings of the study reveal that government and businesses of Ghana can reap several benefits from Sukuk, such as alternative sources of funding and savings, debt portfolio management, inflation control, reduction of unemployment, exchange rate management, expanding financial inclusion, GDP growth enhancement etc. However, there are some challenges, such as low awareness, religious undertones, lack of Sukuk experts, and the lack of comprehensive framework for sukuk implementation.

Source: KNUST
Prospects for Photovoltaics Applications at Dromankese

Lack of electricity in Ghanaian villages is posing tremendous drawbacks on rural development. The total number of rural dwellers facing this predicament is about 10 million currently, including the people of Dromankese, a village in the Brong-Ahafo Region. Currently the people of Dromankese (rural dwellers) are using kerosene lanterns for lighting which is inadequate, dry cells for operating radiolcassette players which are expensive to replace, and only a few are able to pay for the cost of recharging lead-acid batteries at Nkoranza to operate TV sets regularly. The main objective of this work was to identify and appraise those household energy needs at Dromankese which could be met with economical photovoltaics (PV) systems. Dromankese was selected by BIRD (Bureau of Integrated Rural Development, UST) as one of the communities for the implementation of pilot projects under the auspices of the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada/University of Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, Renewable Energy Project. Techno-economic studies have been undertaken with a view to identifying viable photovoltaics applications at Dromankese. The WATSUN-PV 4.0 computer simulation programme was used for the studies. Economic analyses for the photovoltaics systems were done using the benefit/cost ratio (BCR) approach, and the cost of the PV system components were limited to quotations from Canada. An application was considered viable if at least 90% of the electrical energy demand was met throughout the year and the BCR was equal to or greater than 1.000. The studies showed that a PV application for general household use (which includes lighting, operation of a TV set, radio/cassette player and fan) is not cost effective. The BCR for this application ranges from 0.039 to 0.415. The average estimated daily electrical energy demand per household was 866Wh. The BCR for using a PV cold storage facility is 0.162; hence it was also not cost effective. Applications for TV watching and radio/cassette playing with a single panel (i.e., 37Wp, 45Wp or 53Wp) and a 50Ah lead-acid battery proved to be technically viable and cost effective, with a BCR ranging from 1.545 to 2.385. Also some lighting could be achieved with the wasted energy from the panels. A central PV battery charging facility at Dromankese proved to have the highest prospect: The current expenditure on battery charging to watch TV and operate radio/cassette players would reduce from ¢3,300.00 a week (which includes transportation to Nkoranza) to ¢500.00 and the estimated BCR is 1.715, with a payback period of 4.04 years.

Source: KNUST
Prospects for the application of low wind speed turbines for rural electrification in Ghana

Recent studies on wind resource in Ghana by Energy Commission and other bodies indicate that there exists moderate wind resource potential in Ghana which could be exploited for small wind applications, especially in the remote/rural areas where there exist more than 46% of the country’s households without electricity. This thesis assesses the prospects for the application of low wind speed turbine technology in Ghana. Ghana has moderate wind speeds, especially, some areas along the coast, of 4.8 to 5.5 m/s at 12 m a.g.l., that are suitable for small wind turbine applications. It was observed that small wind turbines are mostly used in low wind speed regimes because small wind turbines have the characteristics of starting at low wind speed, thereby, extracting power from low speeds. The cut-in wind speed is generally 3 m/s A wind energy project, “Power to the Poor in Ghana” project, is taken as a case study. Data is collected and analyzed both technically and economically with RETScreen and Wind Energy Payback Workbook. The case study analyzed revealed that the application of the small wind turbine is mostly for lighting and powering of refrigerators, computers, televisions, radio/cassette players, ceiling fans, and commercial battery charging among other uses. In the economic evaluation, the annual worth and the unit cost of electricity generation from imported and locally-made wind turbines are analyzed, and compared with solar photovoltaic and petrol generator, as alternative sources for rural electrification. The levelised energy costs of electricity are $0.83, $1.89, $0.86, $0.77 per kWh for solar PV, petrol generator, imported and locally-made wind turbine, respectively. The unit cost of electricity, though very high for an average peasant farmer and fisherman, can be a competitive option to grid connection which cost between $0.32 and $0.79/kWh through a distance of 5 to 10 km. The unit cost of a community project scenario is $0.1262 per kWh. However, it is noted that, the community project will be economically viable if the avoided cost of energy is at least $0.112/kWh. A hybrid system can be a better viable option, which should be researched into.

Source: KNUST
PROSPECTS OF ISLAMIC BANKING AND FINANCE MODEL IN GHANA

In its 58 year history as a country, Ghana has operated the conventional banking model (i.e interest-based banking). It is however in the process of moving towards a „dual banking system‟ with the emergence of the Islamic Banking and Finance model (i.e. non-interest banking) in the global economy as a viable alternative of financial services provision and calls made to regularise the model in Ghana‟s financial system. This research work attempts an ex ante assessment to provide empirical evidence on the viability or prospects of the model in the near, medium and long term. It therefore uses a mixed method and exploratory case study strategy to draw on four critical perspectives to reach its conclusion: perspective of bankers (level of knowledge on the IBF model and outlook on its viability), support institution (outlook and role), regulation and supervision and macroeconomic trends. The findings show that currently knowledge of bankers on Islamic financing contracts are low. Moreover perceptions of bankers sampled show they are not optimistic about the viability of the model in the near to medium term. Findings from the support institution of IBF practice in Ghana vis a vis bankers‟ perception shows mixed prospects for the model in the near to medium term. Full regulation of the model is also yet to be put in place. In terms of the trend of macroeconomic indicators in Ghana used for the research (i.e. interest rates and inflation rates) it is seen that the model has poor prospects in the near to medium term. Given an aggregate of findings from these perspectives, the researcher concludes that the prospects of the IBF model in the near to medium term is poor. However, in the long term, there could be space for changes that could make the prospects good once it is regularised in Ghana.

Source: KNUST
Prospects for the privatized telecommunication service and information delivery in Ghana

The development taking place in the global economy has shown that private sector is the engine of growth for an economy. The government of Ghana wants to shrike its dominance of economic activities in the country. Telecommunication sector was seen as an instrument that would facilitate the creation of an enabling environment for the development of the economy. However, this sector was characterised by public monopoly. The operation of telecommunication service was therefore constrained by high cost of operation, high incidence of cable theft, limited equipment capacity, weak management information system, among other things. To address these problems, the privatisation policy was extended to the telecommunication sector to encourage private participation which has the needed capital, expertise and technology and also introduce competition into the sector. It was against this background that the study was pursued. The study aimed at determining whether privatisation introduced into the service has brought about innovation and new technology; investigate the effect of the policy of privatising telecommunication service and the response to the demand of customers, workers and the economy as a whole. It is also to identify new services introduced as a result of privatising the service and also to offer useful policy recommendations for effective implementation of privatising the sector. To this effect impact analysis of the Ghana Telecom in terms of spatial distribution and coverage, provision of telephone facilities, profit and revenue generation capacity, quality of service, employment generation and among other things. The study showed that privatisation of the service has yielded much positive result. Analytical exposition revealed an increasing trend for telephone density, profit, improved quality of service, quality of personnel and general efficiency in their operations. Recommendations therefore targeted at strengthening and to design mechanisms for introducing new services, instituting monitoring role for maintenance of the facilities to ensure its sustainability, this will go a long way to improve the service delivery.

Source: KNUST
Protein Extraction from Fern and its Physicochemical Properties

Fern is a seedless vascular plant that reproduces via spores and has various usefulness. This study was carried out to optimize conditions for protein extraction from two defatted fern types namely Nephrolepis biserrata and Arthropteris orientalis. The extraction of defatted fern protein was conducted using alkaline, alcohol and saline treatments method under various conditions such as variation of treatments concentration and time of agitation. Central composite design of response surface methodology was used for identification of the best condition and extraction yield optimization. Result showed that alkaline treatment of 0.1 M NaOH and agitation time of 30 min produced the highest extraction yield with maximum protein recovery of 5.11 mg/mL and 2.03 mg/mL for Nephrolepis biserrata and Arthropteris orientalis respectively. Nephrolepis biserrata fern type gave relatively higher maximum protein yield, giving about more than twice the values obtained for the Arthropteris orientalis. Nephrolepis biserrata showed the highest foaming capacity (65%) and solubility (55.9%). For each isolate, water and oil holding capacity were not significantly different (p>0.05) with Nephrolepis biserrata recording 2.13 mL/g and 2.73 mL/g and Arthropteris orientalis recording 2.39 mL/g and 2.93 mL/g respectively. Protein types such as β-galactosidase, phosphorylase and lysozyme were found to be present in the fern protein isolates in terms of their molecular weight.

Source: KNUST