ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Creative Arts in crisis: Teaching and learning of creative arts in selected Public Primary Schools in Kumasi Metropolis.

Many schools in Ghana depend mostly on generalist teachers for Creative Arts instruction at the primary level yet we know little about these teachers, their preparation before teaching, and what they actually do in the classroom when teaching the Creative Arts. Previously, the extant literature in this area had focused primarily on boosting generalist teachers’ confidence to teach Creative Arts but in recent years, studies by Eisner (1997), Wiggins and Wiggins (2008), Alter, Hays and O’Hara (2009) have revealed that many of the Creative Arts teachers lack the requisite skills, the understanding, knowledge, and confidence to teach this subject simply because they are generalist teachers. This study employed the qualitative research method to identify and describe the actual classroom teaching and learning of the Creative Arts in 10 selected public primary schools in Kumasi, Ghana. The outcome is meant to establish the link between teacher professional development, experience, actual classroom teaching and its impact on the learning of the Creative Arts. This study revealed that there are virtually no specialist trained art teachers in the primary schools and that the Creative Arts as an integrated subject is broad and therefore teachers consider it as additional work load. It also came to light that nearly all (80.3%) the teachers in the selected schools do not teach the practical aspect of the subject because they lack the skills and the knowledge for it. In view of this, pupils in the public primary schools in the Kumasi metropolis often learn drawing and musical games leaving most of the topics in the syllabus untreated. The evidence conclusively points to the fact that the teaching and learning of Creative Arts in the public primary schools is ineffective and left in the hands of teachers who do not make enough effort to teach it. Colleges of education should therefore train specialist teachers for Creative Arts in the primary schools. The GES should also supply teachers with the relevant teaching and learning materials to encourage them to teach the subject.

Source: KNUST
Creative innovations in the vestments of the clergy in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana

Conservativism - one of the hallmarks of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) has enabled the Church to faithfully keep the foreign clerical vestments introduced by the early Christian missionaries about 175 years ago. However, these have following problems: they are not suitable for Ghana’s tropical climate; they do not reflect Ghana’s rich culture; and do not help in better identification of the ministers and their various administrative ranks. This research is therefore aimed at identifying the various administrative ranks among the clergy of the PCG as well as the current vestments of the church and designing appropriate vestments for the church. Experienced reverend ministers of various ranks and some lay persons in the PCG were either personally observed, interviewed or both to help find objective and pragmatic ways of innovating the current vestments of the clergy in the church and to help alleviate the problems stated. This research report considers the various administrative ranks of the clergy in PCC and their outfits the Biblical basis of vestments, historical background and symbolisms of PCG vestments, liturgical colours, Ghanaian traditional colours, Adinkra symbols and cloths/motifs of Ghana, and their symbolic meanings. Different fabrics and their properties are also considered so as to make the best choice for the vestments in the report. The use of Adinkra symbols, kente cloths/motifs and liturgical colours coupled with Ghana’s traditional colours on vestments were found to be the best for indicating the administrative ranks of the clergy and also to reflect Ghana’s culture. New fabric type and colour that suit Ghana’s climate have been proposed in this thesis to replace the current heavy and black vestments of the PCG ministers. A number of modified designs of some clerical elements and liturgical colours, being proposed for PCG clergy, are presented in this research report. Churches like the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Salvation Army, the Methodist Church and some academic institutions in Ghana and abroad have conducted research on costumes introduced by their founders and have effected changes to suit their environment. It is the researcher’s wish that PCG considers the recommendations in this research report for much constructive innovations in her vestments.

Source: KNUST
Creativity in contemporary Ghanaian painting and its socio - economic importance

An aspect of Ghanaian Art which is adequately lacking in terms of documentation is painting. It is therefore this desire to explore and document this area, which has basically prompted this research. In this light, such documentation can be an invaluable contribution to painting in Ghana. However since painting entails creativity, the principal focus throughout this thesis is on the creative process, how this process is inhibited and how effectively it can be enhanced in painting as it pertains to Ghana. In this regard, this thesis will examine and attempt to identify the extent of creativity and trends in contemporary Ghanaian painting. Again, creativity in painting will be analysed in terms of how it influences and affects the society. This analysis will seek to evaluate the importance of creativity in painting to the socio - economy of Ghana. Some selected Ghanaian Painters will be documented to further enhance this thesis. This is to help reveal their understanding of creativity and how it affects their philosophies and approaches to work again, this is to expose their endeavours to the general public and help in the understanding of painting in Ghana generally. Recommendations will be made at the end of this thesis, in an effort to appraise and foster better understanding of the topic and its importance to the Ghanaian society. This study is intended to help enlighten the reading public, and also serve as a source of reference for students, the general public and both local and foreign researchers. The thesis exercise will be undertaken through personal observations, questionnaires and interviews and literary materials

Source: KNUST
Creativity in Bamboo

The aim of the study was to find a variety of ways in which bamboo could be used to create art products in Secondary Schools. This plant is widespread and versatile. Even thou bamboo is grass, it has tree-like characteristics and has advantage over trees because it grows faster. It has been observed that the plant has a wide variety of use in Asia apart from its role in culture and art. From a Chinese culinary delicacy to scaffolding material, virtually every part of bamboo is useful. In Ghana bamboo is in abundance, but its use is very much limited. In line with this, a project work was carried out to study various production processes in bamboo art. This has resulted in the creation of twenty pieces of bamboo art products by the author. An attempt has been made in this manual to give guidance to art teachers who would like to go into bamboo art production with their students. The need for the teacher and student to know the medium has been emphasized. It is concluded that the country as a whole stands to gain economically if the bamboo products meet international standards. Arising from the results, it was suggested that increased governmental participation was necessary through financing, the revival of old rattan industries and the opening up of new ones.

Source: KNUST
CREDIT APPRAISAL PROCESS AND REPAYMENT OF LOAN AT GN BANK. A CASE STUDY OF UPPER AND LOWER DENKYIRA.

This study examines the credit appraisal process and repayment of Bank loans at GN Bank. Specifically the study investigates the appropriateness of the credit appraisal process of GN Bank, the relationship between loan officers and customers and the effect of loan officer – customer relationship on the credit appraisal process. The study also identifies strategies to help improve the credit appraisal process of the Bank. A face-to-face household-level survey of 142 respondents is conducted in Upper and Lower Denkyira East Municipal, Ghana in 2015 with a structured questionnaire. The subjects for the study are formal and informal sector workers. On the appropriateness of the credit appraisal process, the factors are loan processing time, nature of collateral, loan diversion, credit scoring and evaluation, loan amount disbursement, loan repayment and loan default. The study also finds out the loans department offers excellent reception to all customers irrespective of the loans officer’s relationship with the customer. Loan officers provide assistance to most customers in completing the loan form and also advise them on how to invest the loan amount in the intended business or project. The relationship between loan officers and customers has almost no effect on loan repayment. Majority of customers who defaults loan repayment has no relationship with loan officers. Also, there should be a thorough screening of the borrowers before loans are disbursed. Further, there should be supervisory visits by credit officers after loans have been disbursed to ensure proper use of the borrowed funds thereby enhancing the chances for higher profitability of enterprises and loan repayment. Also, loan repayment period should be set in accordance with the financial viability of the project, loan size and market situation.

Source: KNUST
Credit management practices of Odotobri Rural Bank

The study explores the credit management practices of Odotobri rural bank in the Obuasi Municipality. A sample size of one credit Officer (key informant) is purposively selected for the study. A face to face interview with the help of a well-structured questionnaire is employed to collect primary data for this study. The study identify the type of loan offered by Odotobri rural bank as susu loans, salary loans, micro loans , ordinary loans and overdrafts, funeral and social loans. The study indicates that the three most pressing factors that influence access to credit are collateral surety, net profit per month and level of savings. The study recommends, among other things that the due credit delivery processes should be followed strictly to minimize the incidence of high loan default. And that appropriate training programmes should be offered to credit officers, directors and management personnel to facilitate the making of good credit decisions. The study recommends that the credit collection section should be provided with the logistics needed to carry out its main task of debt collection.

Source: KNUST
Credit management techniques of commercial banks: A case of banks listed on the Ghana stock exchange .

The study investigated the credit management techniques being employed by the commercial banks to ascertain their soundness in line with the industry standards. Accordingly, this research sought to measure the following objectives thus; to ascertain the credit management techniques the understudied banks use in their loan administration, to assess the uderstudied banks credit management techniques ability to collect its loan on their schedule date and finally to assess the understudied banks non perforaming loans for the period of (2006-2015). The target population for the study constituted all the commercial banks in Ghana listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. Specifically the study sample came from five of the listed commercial banks; CAL bank, Ecobank, GCB, HFC and SG-SSB. Since the study was guided on the principles of quantitative methodology, this study used questionnaires as the data collection instrument. The questionnaire had three parts. The first part of the questionnaires set questions to find out the respondents demographic characteristics. The subsequent part of questionnaires had questions on the credit management techniques being employed by the banks. The third and final section looked at the measurement construct of study. It became evident in the study that the understudied institutions had written guidelines for approving loans likewise the banks employed both quantitative and qualitative credit risk management techniques.

Source: KNUST
Credit Risk Assessment: A Case Study Of Some Selected Banks in Ghana

This study modeled the profitability of banks in relation to its internal and credit risk factors. A panel data regression approach was used with data consisting of financial statements and closing stock prices of five selected banks listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange Market. The internal factors considered were Capital adequacy, asset quality, efficiency and size, with the credit risk factors being GDP growth, inflation, private indebtedness and average exchange rate. The Fixed effect model was found to be the most appropriate model suitable for this data set based on the Hausman test. Which specified, the independent variables had a 0:78 efficiency of predicting profitability, with capital adequacy, asset quality , inflation and private indebtedness being significant in determining the profitability of banks. The second part of this study proceeded to measure credit risk of these same banks using the option pricing methodology, the default model of these banks were evaluated using Black-Scholes-Merton default probability.

Source: KNUST
Credit risk management and banks’ performance in Ghana.

This paper examines the effect of credit risk management on bank performance in the Banking industry in Ghana. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaire to 18 credit managers of universal banks in Accra, Ghana. Descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple regressions were employed to examine the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The result shows that there is positive and significant relationship between credit risk management and bank performance. The study also discloses that Credit Risk analysis and assessment, Credit risk identification, Credit monitoring, and Credit scoring mechanism were the key determinants of bank performance. The result also revealed that Credit Monitoring is the chief driver of Bank Performance, followed by Credit Scoring Mechanism, Credit Risk Identification and Credit risk analysis and assessment respectively. The study recommends that banking firms who desire to improve upon the level of bank performance should pay much attention to Credit Risk analysis and assessment, Credit Risk Identification, Credit monitoring, and Credit scoring mechanism. Banks management should enhance the construction of employee teams through providing training and seminars to improve their business knowledge to ensure effective risk monitoring, identification and assessment is carried out before disbursement of credit to creditors in order to mitigate the occurrence of credit risk and improves bank performance.

Source: KNUST
Credit risk management and loan repayment at Stanbic Bank.

In an increasingly competitive banking environment and hard economic times the initiation of an effective credit risk management practices can be a critical success factor. The study examines credit risk management and loan repayment within the Ghanaian banking sector with particular focus on Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited. The specific objectives were to assess the credit risk management performance of Stanbic Bank and how credit risk management practices such as credit terms, client appraisal, and credit risk control and credit collection policies of Stanbic Bank influence customer loan repayment. The research used the descriptive research design. The research population comprised customers and staff of Stanbic Bank Ghana in the four branches of Kumasi. The snowball sampling procedure was used to select 200 customers from four branches of Stanbic Bank namely Adum, Harper road, Suame and Ashtown. Also, purposive sampling was used to select 20 staff from Stanbic Bank in Kumasi. The study revealed the Bank request for financial statement from customers and ensures high value collateral before granting loans. It was found that the credit risk management practice of the bank was good from the perspective of the respondents. This is because according to the customers the loan delivery and repayment procedures were reliable, responsive, assured and there was empathy from staff. It was also found that clients appraisal initiated by the bank have influenced loan repayment. According to customers and staff, credit terms, credit risk control methods and credit collection policies used by the bank have influenced loan repayment. It is recommended in this study that Stanbic bank should update their collateral valuations on many loans either through outside appraisals or internal evaluations. They should also have a separate loan review function that is independent of the line lending function, thus providing an objective review of the credit granted.

Source: KNUST
Credit Risk Management in Banking Industry: Case Study Atwiman Kwanwoma Rural Bank

The Business of lending is gradually becoming a major target for many banks, as a result there is high competition among the financial institutions in Ghana leading to default of most loans. In order to raise the quality of giving loans and reduce the risk involve in giving loans, credit scoring models have been developed by banks and researchers to improve the process of assessing credit worthiness during the credit evaluation process. This study uses historical data on payments, demographic characteristics and statistical techniques to construct logistic regression model (credit scoring models) and to identify the important demographic characteristics related to credit risk. The logistic regression model was used to design a logistic regression model calculator which was used to calculate the probability of default. Customers’ age, sex, occupation, number of dependent, marital Status and amount of loan collected were used. The results showed that default rate is higher in males than in females, 30—39 year olds have the highest rate of default. Married customers defaulted more than the customers who are not married (single) and the higher the number of dependents, the higher the default rate. The self employed clients defaulted more than salary earners. It was found out that the higher the amount of loan collected, the higher the probability of default. The predicting power of the model is 70%.The model has 70.5% accuracy rate of distinqiushing defaulters from non-defaulters. If one was identified as defaulter, he/she had 84% chance of actually defaulting and if a customer was identified as non-defaulter, he/she had 54% chance of actually not defaulting.

Source: KNUST
Credit Risk Management Practices: A Comparative Study between Commercial Banks and Microfinance Institutions

Background: The financial sector has witnessed astronomical growth in the last two decades both worldwide and locally as well; it is evidenced by the increment in the number of financial institutions in Ghana. This observation could be partly attributed to the enabling environment created through the enactment of laws and the liberalization of the financial sector making it very competitive. Most studies conducted in this field in Ghana have documented credit risk management practices either in a commercial bank or a microfinance institution but none has tried to look at a comparative study of the credit risk practices in the commercial banks and microfinance institutions in Ghana. Aim: The aim of the study was to compare the credit risk practices between commercial banks and microfinance institutions. Methods: Convenience sampling was used for selecting commercial banks and MFIs whereas the selection of participants, workers involved in credit management processes, was done by simple random sampling. The instrument used for data collection was closed-ended questionnaire. STATA version 14 and Microsoft Excel were employed in analysing the data. Results: Generally, the highest educational level of the credit management officials in commercial banks and MFIs was adequate with the lowest being level being HND. The area of risk identification needs a lot of improvement as the results showed low mean practice scores in both commercial bank and MFIs. MFIs reportedly were lacking in the areas of risk monitoring and reporting, risk assessment and analysis, risk management practices, and understanding risk and risk management. Credit culture was the constraint that was reported the most among both commercial bank and MFI officials. On the other hand, inadequate education, training and number of staff for the credit department among commercial bank respondents whereas inadequate number of staff for the credit department among were the least reported constraints. Conclusion: Highly qualified and well-trained individuals are needed to properly scrutinize loan applications. Therefore, it is of great importance to employ personnel who have adequate educational qualification and equip them with analytical skills through training. In addition, scheduling a routine assessment carried out by an external team to address the personal biases of credit managers as well as the creation of an early detection system to alert credit managers of non-performing loans for action to be taken will go a long way to improve credit risk management practices. The major constraint identified by both respondents of commercial banks and microfinance institutions. Therefore, further studies could be conducted to find out what credit culture(s) seem to be bothering the staff of the credit departments.

Source: KNUST
Credit risk management practices among rural and community banks (rcbs) in Ghana(Case Study: Sekyere Rural Bank)

This study of credit management– A Case Study of Sekyere Rural Bank is an attempt to point out the importance of credit management in financial institutions such as commercial banks, micro finances and others. Thus, the justification behind for undertaking this study is to deeply investigate the causes of credit management problems and to propose the possible solutions that facilitate the bank to run its operation in a safest way as credit is known to be the main stay of all banks. The ability of banks to formulate and adhere to policies and procedures that promote credit quality and curtail non-performing loans is the means to survive in the stiff competition. Inability to create and build up quality loans and credit worthy customers leads to default risk and bankruptcy as well as hampers economic growth of a country.However, little work is done to search the ways and means that enable to quality loan creation and growth as well as to determine the relationship between the theories, concepts and credit policies.The main objective of the study is to evaluate the performance of credit management of Sekyere Rural Bank as compared to bank of Ghana‘s requirements in comparison with its credit policy and procedures.For the purpose of the study both primary and secondary data are used. Primary data is collected using semi structured questionnaires. The secondary data is collected from annual reports, directives, and bulletins of the bank. Descriptive statistical tools are used in analyzing the data collected. Hence, the nature of the Study is descriptive.Finally, based on the findings possible recommendations are given. These include the issues impeding loan growth and rising loan clients complaint on the bank regarding the valuing of properties offered for collateral, lengthy of loan processing, amount of loan processed and approved, loan period, and discretionary limits affecting the performance of credit management.

Source: KNUST