ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
The "Elluo" festival of the Sehwis as drama

Following Ruth Finnegan’s statement that traditional Africa has no drama, critics, including Ghartey-Tagoe, have proved her wrong by demonstrating that funeral performances for example constitute drama. My work is an addition to the scholarly debate that indeed, traditional Africa has drama and I use the ‘Elluo’ festival of the Sehwis as my frame of reference. The performance of the ‘Elluo’ festival, from the beginning to the end, portrays a sequence of events which gives the festival a distinct and complete plot. The performance of the various events revolves around three ideas. One of these ideas is thanksgiving to the Supreme Being and the gods of the Sehwi state. The second idea is the remembrance of the fallen heroes and heroines of the state while the third is unity among the people of the Sehwi state. Of these ideas, that of thanksgiving serves as the central one for the celebration of the festival. The various rituals involved in the performance of the ‘Elluo’ festival are performed by various characters, individually and collectively, at various places. All these places are in the environment of Sehwi Wiawso, the traditional capital, which serves as the setting of the festival. These various places also serve as the scenes in the performance of the ‘Elluo’ festival. The ‘Elluo’ is enriched by the artistic patterning of the Sehwi language which is rich in artistic devices. Singing and dancing are also integral parts of the festival. A critical appraisal of the festival has therefore been given to show the relationship between it and modern literature, specifically, drama. With the study of the ‘Elluo’ festival, which is a traditional African performance replete with the essential elements of drama such as plot, theme, characterisation, language, scene, music and dance, it has been proved that traditional African performances constitute drama. The discussion of the dramatic elements of the ‘Elluo’ festival has not only proved the dramatic nature of the festival and other traditional African performances, but it has also brought into sharp focus the rich cultural practices inherent in the festival.

Source: KNUST
Emergency preparedness for communicable diseases in public hospitals in the Kumasi Metropolis.

The global threat of communicable diseases and its world implications cannot be over emphasized. Its effects on lives of citizens exacerbate social and political instability in affected counties and regions. Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death and account for a quarter of the estimated 54 million deaths worldwide in 2012.The potential for disasters to occur exists in all communities. In the light of aforementioned the health sector should always anticipate disaster and disease outbreaks and put in prevention and preparatory measures in place so as to reduce the impact of such occurrences. This study was conducted to describe the emergency preparedness of public hospitals in the Kumasi Metropolis for Communicable diseases. A cross- sectional descriptive study was conducted using stratified random sampling methods. Five hundred (500) participants were enrolled in the study, from the five public hospitals in the Kumasi Metropolis. These facilities were Tafo Government Hospital (TGH), Manhyia Government Hospital (MGH), Kumasi South Hospital (KSH), Suntreso Government Hospital (SGH) and Maternal and Child Health Hospital (MCHH). A total of four hundred and eight (408) clinical care health workers and management team members responded. Self-administered structured questionnaire which reflected the objectives of the study were administered. Results of the study reveals that the knowledge of health workers on communicable disease was very good (96.11%), the practice of management of communicable disease was also good (85%) however the knowledge on emergency preparedness for communicable diseases was low as only (27.1%) of the respondents were aware of it and there were no emergency preparedness plan in the facilities. There were no emergency preparedness teams for communicable diseases and no structures in place for managing such cases. Management of the Kumasi Metropolitan Health Directorate should organize top up training on management of communicable diseases was recommended to enhance the knowledge and skills of health workers to management such cases, structures should be put in place in addressing communicable disease issues, and emergency preparedness plans should be drawn with involvement from all stakeholders to ensure its utilizations. In conclusion the emergency preparedness of public health facilities in the Kumasi Metropolis for communicable diseases was not adequate.

Source: KNUST
Emerging Threats to Food Security among Rural Households in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality

Current unfavourable developments in the agricultural sector of most developing countries have brought to the fore renewed interest in the ever persistent challenge of food insecurity. The study examines the emerging threats confronting rural households food security in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region of Ghana. The mixed method approach and the exploratory descriptive study design were employed. Both secondary and primary data sources were relied on. The secondary sources included both published and unpublished documents. The primary data were sought primarily from rural farm household heads. A combination of methods was employed to sample 90 respondents―on the basis of the six (6) Urban/Area councils of the municipality. The study found that socio-demographic characteristics (sex, age, household size and the number on regular income earners) of the survey respondents are proving to have a negative effect on their food security status. The study also found that climatic conditions in the area are becoming considerably variable with negative effects on agricultural activity and food security. The study further revealed that cultivable land available to rural folks is slowly diminishing with adverse implications for food security. In the area of price volatility, it became evident that expenditure on food outstrips income from farm produce, creating an income gap with obvious negative implications on food security. Finally, rural farm households coping strategies in the face of these threats have been shown to be varying but less effective and sustainable. The study therefore recommended a comprehensive, holistic and multi-frontal approach which includes: maintaining productive household structures; ensuring effective strategies towards climate induce-stresses; promoting sustainable land use planning to effectively deal with these threats while recommending further and building strong resistance towards food price volatility.

Source: KNUST
Empirical analysis of cryptocurrency as an investment vehicle from an African perspective.

This study sets out to explore the hedging capability of cryptocurrency (bitcoin) and gold against selected African economies’ stock indexes and currencies. In doing so, the study uses daily time series price data for five African stock exchanges over the period of 20th June, 2011 to 16th January, 2017. By adopting the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARCH/GARCH) estimation methods, the study finds that there exist no-country specific effects with regard to the investment, portfolio and risk management opportunities of bitcoin and gold as potential investment products. Bitcoin and gold serve as hedges against all the five African economies’ stock indexes; Ghana stock index, Nigeria stock index, Zimbabwe stock index, Kenya stock index and Johannesburg stock index; and Ghana cedi-US dollar exchange rate. The duration of bitcoin hedging capability is that of long-term. The results further show that both bitcoin and gold share similarities in their investment and portfolio abilities. A strong assertion by the study is that, bitcoin is better off as an investment asset than currency due to its currency dissimilarity. Some of these outcomes give evidence to previous research conducted on similar grounds in the developed world. These findings from a policy perspective indicate the consideration of cryptocurrency as a new and promising investment asset rather than currency for medium of exchange purpose. Therefore the focus of African government leaders and policy makers should be on development of positive and flexible attitude with which they can embrace change in relation to the adoption of cryptocurrency. This will ensures promotion of investment opportunities in the African economy.

Source: KNUST
Emperical analysis of import demand dynamics in sub-Sahara Africa.

Over the years, trade liberalization coupled with rapid population growth, urbanization, rising income levels and changes in dietary patterns have resulted in a significant increase in the demand for imports by sub-Saharan Africa countries. As a result of the large growth in imports over exports, trade deficits in sub-Saharan Africa countries have been persistent over the years. The ever increasing trade deficits and its resultant current account deficits creates challenges for employment and poverty reduction efforts especially when such deficits are instigated by growing imports of consumer goods which could have been produced domestically. This study therefore analyzed the import demand dynamics of sub-Saharan Africa using panel data from 32 countries spanning from 1990 to 2016. The study estimated an imperfect substitute model using the dynamic system generalized methods of moments (system-GMM) estimation method. The study found that the major drivers of the demand for imports in sub-Saharan Africa are (1) the components of aggregate expenditure (household consumption, government consumption, gross investment and exports) and (2) relative import prices and that the components of aggregate expenditure affect import demand in sub-Saharan Africa differently. The study suggested that fiscal policies aimed at influencing the pattern of aggregate expenditure components, notably household and government consumption expenditures are essential in reducing importation in SSA. Therefore, sub-Saharan Africa governments should create the enabling environment to boost domestic productive capacity and also give precedence to the development of resource based industries, which have low import contents, and to accelerate the development of backward linkage for non resource based industries in order to increase the use of local inputs so as to dampen the increase in import demand which is often driven by economic growth.

Source: KNUST
Emotional intelligence and effective leadership evidence from second cycle schools in Kumasi.

This study seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge on organizational behaviour and human resource development literature by empirically examining emotional intelligence as determinant of leadership effectiveness, conflict management, and extra efforts arousal in employees in second cycle educational institutions in Ghana. Data to address this objective were collected using questionnaires from 6 senior high schools in the Kumasi Metropolis. 380 questionnaires were administered and a response rate of 96.39% was attained. Both descriptive and inferential statistical tools and procedures were employed in analysing data collected. Specifically, in estimating the study's proposed model, Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression analysis was used by building and testing for series of hierarchical models. In all, after controlling for nine personality disposition variables, the study's proposed model significantly accounted for 5.5%, 3.1%, and 7.1% variations leadership effectiveness, conflict management, and extra efforts respectively. The study's results indicated that emotional intelligence has significant direct effects on leadership effectiveness and extra efforts among followers but its effects on conflict management is fully transmitted through leadership effectiveness. That is, emotional intelligence was found not to significantly relate to conflict management directly. By implication, the study points out that, leaders’ ability to manage conflicts well and or arouse extra efforts in followers at the workplace is to a larger extent depended on leaders’ level of effectiveness, which could largely be enhanced when leaders are emotionally intelligent. Based on these findings, it is recommended that managements and as well appropriate educational agencies should engage such leaders in activities (e.g. continuous training and counselling) which could improve their emotional intelligence level.

Source: KNUST
Empirical analysis of Exchange rate in Ghana

The inherent aim of this study was to investigate the factors that influence exchange rate movements in Ghana. The frequent exchange rate volatility poses a serious challenge to economic agents in their decision making process. The study covers the period of thirtyfour years (1980 – 2013). Both primary and secondary data were used in arriving at the findings of the study. Qualitative and quantitative analysis were done to serve as means of presenting the findings of the research work. An Augmented Dickey-Fuller unit root test was conducted after which the ARDL cointegration analysis was performed. Other approaches adopted were the Granger causality test, impulse response, and variance decomposition. The findings indicates that imports, public debt, nominal GDP, and inflation affect exchange rate movement in the Ghanaian economy. Also, exchange rate depreciation was found to have significant impacts on the economy as it can trigger inflation, worsening the external debt position of government, and deteriorating the nation’s trade balance. As ways of tackling the depreciation of the Cedi and mitigating the attendant adverse repercussion on the Ghanaian economy, creation of imports substitutes and appropriate utilization of borrowed funds by government appear to be vibrant measures.

Source: KNUST
An empirical analysis of fiscal deficit in Ghana

Persistent fiscal deficit constitute a major problem facing Least Developed Countries (LDCs). In Ghana, fiscal deficits still persists despite the potentials of the Ghanaian economy and efforts made by various governments to reduce the country’s public debt. Therefore, this study attempts to analyze fiscal deficit in Ghana. Specifically, the study seeks to identify the factors determining fiscal deficit and investigate its effect on exchange rate and inflation in Ghana. The bounds testing approach to co-integration and (ECM) error-correction models, developed within an Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) framework is applied to annual data for the period 1980 to 2013 to examine the long-run equilibrium relationship between fiscal deficit and its determinants, exchange rate and its covariates and inflation and its covariates. The results of the bounds test indicate that there exists long-run relationship between fiscal deficit and its determinants, exchange rate and its covariates and inflation and its covariates. The empirical findings from the ARDL model reveal that fiscal deficit in Ghana is affected by international trade, broad money supply and government revenue in the long run, but have no effect on fiscal deficit in the short run. The findings however indicate that GDP, total debt servicing and democracy affect fiscal deficit significantly in both the short and long run. Democracy was found in this study to be an important determinant of fiscal deficit in both the long run and short run while government consumption expenditure was only significant in determining fiscal deficit in the short run. The findings further reveal a robust evidence of a negative effect of fiscal deficit on exchange rate in both the long and short runs whereas the effect of fiscal deficit on inflation is only significant in the short run. Policy implications drawn based on the findings include; enforcing stringent fiscal measures to restrain government spending, targeting higher GDP growth and stimulating export promotion.

Source: KNUST
An empirical analysis of inflation dynamics in Ghana: how important are real and nominal shocks?

The study analyzed the relative importance of real and nominal shocks in explaining inflation dynamics in the Ghanaian economy using the Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) model. Specifically the study sought to analyze the response of inflati on to output and money supply shocks in Ghana which are proxies for the real and nominal shocks respectively. The analysis and the reported findings of the study were based on quarterly data spanning the period 1980Q1 to 2012Q4. The complete annual nature of the real GDP was disaggregated into quarterly frequencies through the use of Ecotrim software. With the imposition of short run restrictions, the study confirmed the increasing importance of inflation being a structural rather than a monetary phenomenon since inflation tend to be more responsive to real rather than nominal shocks in the short run. Inflation remained relatively stable in response to money supply and exchange rate shocks whiles it declined by a greater magnitude in response to a positive output (real) shock. It was also found that, the dominant importance of inflation inertia, inflation responded positively between 0% and 100% to inflation persistence. This was further buttressed from the variance decomposition as inflation persistence explained more than 60% of the variations in inflation while the combined effect of output and money explained less than 40% in the short run. It is worth noting that other policy meted out which have real effects on the economy would be advantageous to reducing inflation, however inflation targeting policy tools which have real effects on the economy would only be successful after the 11 th quarter period as inflation becomes insensitive to real shocks after this period.

Source: KNUST
An empirical analysis of inflation dynamics in Ghana: how important are real and nominal shocks?

The study analyzed the relative importance of real and nominal shocks in explaining inflation dynamics in the Ghanaian economy using the Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) model. Specifically the study sought to analyze the response of inflation to output and money supply shocks in Ghana which are proxies for the real and nominal shocks respectively. The analysis and the reported findings of the study were based on quarterly data spanning the period 1980Q1 to 2012Q4. The complete annual nature of the real GDP was disaggregated into quarterly frequencies through the use of Ecotrim software. With the imposition of short run restrictions, the study confirmed the increasing importance of inflation being a structural rather than a monetary phenomenon since inflation tend to be more responsive to real rather than nominal shocks in the short run. Inflation remained relatively stable in response to money supply and exchange rate shocks whiles it declined by a greater magnitude in response to a positive output (real) shock. It was also found that, the dominant importance of inflation inertia, inflation responded positively between 0% and 100% to inflation persistence. This was further buttressed from the variance decomposition as inflation persistence explained more than 60% of the variations in inflation while the combined effect of output and money explained less than 40% in the short run. It is worth noting that other policy meted out which have real effects on the economy would be advantageous to reducing inflation, however inflation targeting policy tools which have real effects on the economy would only be successful after the 11th quarter period as inflation becomes insensitive to real shocks after this period. Key Words: Inflation, Real Shock, Nominal Shock, Inflation Inertia, SVAR, Ghana

Source: KNUST
Empirical Analysis Of Productivity And Resource-Use-Efficiency In Ghana’s Cocoa Industry: Evidence From Bibiani-Anhiawso-Bekwai District.

This study analyses the production and resource use efficiency in Ghana’s cocoa bean industry. The study area (Bibiani-Anhiawso-Bekwai district) was particularly chosen for this study because of its prime place in cocoa production. The productivity and technical efficiency involved in cocoa production was estimated using the stochastic frontier production function analysis and the direct or primal approach was used in estimating the resource allocation efficiency. Cocoa farming was mostly on small scale level as most of the farmers (70%) had less than 5 hectares producing about 20 bags of cocoa per cocoa season. Moreover, about 90 percent spray their farms with insecticides and fungicides whilst just about 41 percent apply fertilizer on their farm. The stochastic analysis showed that farm size, mean age of cocoa trees, labour, frequency of weeding and pruning, intensity of insecticides and frequency of insecticides application exerts significant effects on cocoa production whilst intensity of fertilizer application, frequency and intensity of fungicide application had no influence on cocoa production. The results further revealed that, cocoa farm operation had positive increasing return to scale (RTS=1.26) indicating that cocoa production was in the irrational stage of production (Stage III). The efficiency level ranged between 0.03 and 0.93 with a mean technical efficiency of 0.49. The major contributing factors to efficiency were farmer’s years of experience, farmers benefiting from CODAPEC programme and family size. However, cocoa farmers were not fully economically efficient in the allocation of their resources. The study observed that there was an opportunity for increase in farmers’ efficiency and concluded that policies that would directly affect these identified variables should be pursued vigorously.

Source: KNUST
An empirical analysis of the determinants of trade balance in post-liberalisation Ghana

The study investigates the determinants of trade balance in post-liberalisation Ghana. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag Bounds test approach to cointegration was used for the estimation. Further, the study employed the variance decomposition and impulse response functions to investigate the dynamic simulations of the variables included in the estimated model. The results show evidence of an equilibrium long-run relationship (cointegration) between trade balance, exchange rate, household consumption expenditure, government consumption expenditure, money supply, foreign income, domestic prices and agricultural growth rate. The study finds that in the long-run increasing levels of household consumption expenditure, government consumption expenditure, money supply, and domestic prices worsens Ghana‟s trade balance whilst foreign income improves it. Exchange rate and agricultural growth rate were insignificant in the long-run. The short-run result also shows that exchange rate, household consumption expenditure, government consumption expenditure and money supply cause a decline in Ghana‟s trade balance. Foreign income, agricultural growth rate and domestic prices were insignificant in the short-run. The long-run and short-run effects of exchange rate on the trade balance show the absence of the Marshall-Lerner condition and the J-curve effect. Further the variance decomposition results show that innovations in household consumption expenditure highly contributed to the forecast error of Ghana‟s trade balance compared to other explanatory variables. The findings and recommendations of the study provide vital information for trade policy reforms.

Source: KNUST