ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Regional autonomy and local revenue mobilization: problems and pitfalls of fiscal decentralization.

This research sought to examine regional autonomy and local resource mobilization: problems and pitfalls of fiscal decentralization using KMA (urban assembly) and AMMA (rural assembly) based on interview and focus discussion with key government officials, revenue collectors and tax payers and complemented with audited composite budget for the period 2012 to 2018. It is clear from the analysis that, both assemblies have seen growth in own-source revenue with the urban assembly experiencing a better growth rate to the point of being at par with central government transfers. Though, the assemblies still are dependent on the central government transfers to be able to match up with developmental projects, this has caused it from being fully autonomous and as such limits the exercise of higher taxes and/or new taxes. Key factors that seem to run through the underlying argument of this research is that, both assemblies have failed to offer public education and sensitization programmes to involve the various stakeholders in decision making among other factors like corruption, inadequate logistics and inadequate incentive systems.

Source: KNUST
Regional Correctional Centre -Nketia Ashanti Region, Ghana

Prison overcrowding continues to haunt Ghana’s prison institutions. All adult prison facilities in Ghana are currently operating above their rated or design capacities. Data as at February 6, 2009 indicates that the prison system in Ghana is heavily overcrowded with the national rate of overcrowding standing at 78 percent. The overcrowding situation is more pronounced in Ashanti, Eastern, Western, and Northern and Upper West regions. The Ashanti region recorded an overcrowding rate of 182 percent. All the six prison establishments in the region have a total design capacity of 886 but as at February 6, 2009, there were a total of 2501 inmates confined in the six prisons. Prison overcrowding has many negative effects upon inmates. Research has demonstrated that prison overcrowding creates competition for limited resources, aggression, higher rates of illness, increased likelihood of recidivism and higher suicide rates. There are various methods to reduce prison overcrowding. Among the more influential are prison design and reducing the prison population by developing community based alternatives to incarceration for minor offences. The regional correctional centre shall provide additional capacity to absorb the current deficit and also provide inmates with vocational training that will keep them employed when they are released.

Source: KNUST
Regional Court Complex, Tamale.

The building of Regional Court Complexes in the various regions in the country is very essential to the decentralization of the judicial process. This allows the various case types to be adjudicated at the regional level and this in the long run will reduce the backlog of cases at the courts in Accra. A court complex in Tamale is very strategic because of Tamales location since in the short term, it will help determine cases from the Upper East, Upper West, Northern and the upper portions of the Brong Ahafo Regions which needs to go to Accra for adjudication. It will save time and cost. The objectives of the design will be to come with a court facility which will have facilities like an electronic referencing library, appeal courtrooms, specialized courts like the commercial court and an industrial court and district courtrooms and also meet up with the modern trends in courthouse designs. The design will look at the segregation of circulation of the various users to ensure maximum security and minimal interaction. It will also provide an edifice people relate to and see as their own. In order to achieve these objectives, various works of literature on court complexes were studied to fully comprehend what goes into the design of courts and also studies were done on court buildings in and around the country to come up with a design that will be functional, respond to the climate, utilize local and available resources and also aesthetically pleasing.

Source: KNUST
Regional court complex-Tamale

Over the years courts in Ghana have seen huge increments in cases and caseloads without a corresponding increase in court facilities and staff to effectively handle and manage the situation. Factors contributing to these would be attributed to increase in population, culture of the people, religious inclination just to mention a few and awareness level of the citizenry to the constitution of the land, their rights and responsibilities These increments in caseloads and the lack of implementing modem methods and applying modern means of arbitration have placed stresses on the judicial service resulting in huge back log of cases and in some circumstances the loss of public confidence in the judicial services i competence the to deliver timely judgment and expedient court action. The judiciary being an arm of government in this sense will have to be seen to be up and doing in with its role in administering and interpreting justice fairly and timely to all citizens to aid in Ghana's development agenda. In this light it has taken certain initiatives such as the introduction of Alternate Dispute Resolution (A.D.R) mechanisms in arbitration. It has also taken steps to upgrading and modernizing its record keeping and archiving. In a bid upgrading its systems the service has sought to give its old dilapidated court houses and building a face lift and in some instances construct new one's or have a combination of courts were necessary. This is targeted at improving the justice system and removing all bottlenecks in the administration of justice in the country.

Source: KNUST
Regional Headquarters Ghana National Fire Service - Kumasi

The National Fire Service has for a considerable length of time now been under fire; both rightly or wrongly; mainly for laxity and inefficiency. The result of these accusations is a loss of confidence in and isolation of the fireman. This is because:- i) They cannot respond promptly to any distress call that is on the assumption that some patriotic citizen manages to get through on the telephone or call at the station personally. ii) Sometimes they don’t have enough water in the Fire Tenders (Engines) to fight fire. iii) They cannot find the location of hydrants (if there are any) in any area in distress. Out of concern that a permanent or even just prolonged loss of public confidence in the Fire Service could be detrimental to peace and stability in society and bearing in mind my position as a student architect, I decided to take a closer look at the situation. Two things which came out of my study are that:- i) Both the public and the fire service have a case. ii) There is an urgent need to savage the dignity of the Fireman from its present doldrums; while the moral aspect of this exercise must come from within the fireman himself, the architect can help in a self-satisfying way by providing for the fireman surroundings befitting the dignity he must possess and preserve. The greatest impediment that came my way was the fact that both the Fire Service Headquarters in Kumasi (where the study is based, as the second largest city in Ghana) and the Administrative Headquarters in Accra don’t have any library, archives or any written brochure or document about i) Their history: ii) Their present development and progress. This I had to find out by “word of mouth” through interviews (with cross checks) of a number of Firemen both in Kumasi and Accra. I obtained lot information through this. In the matter of the people’s right to the services of an efficient fire service, my word to the Ghanaian public; especially those in authority; is that to every right is attached a responsibility, and whoever shirks his responsibility is denied the right thereof.

Source: KNUST
Regional House of Chiefs Dodowa, Greater-Accra

The Regional House of Chiefs will house chiefs during their deliberations and decisionmaking processes that will affect Chieftaincy related activities in the Region. This facility should be seen as preserving the cultural heritage and the identity of the Ga-Dangmes. It would be that one can identify oneself with, and at the same time instill some sense of pride in the people, and make a bold statement. The House will therefore be symbolic with the aim of developing unity in the indigenous socio-political authority with the aim of developing indigenous political set-up and in modern -political systems.

Source: KNUST
Regional Library Sunyani

Information has been a commodity basic for the development of the individual and the nation. It is also a necessary prerequisite for planning and daily living. An uninformed person or community is the most handicapped person or community and a whole nation or people can perish from the lack of information. For this reason, information needs to be made available to the people. Such information which is recorded in varied forms is stored and made available in various places and media, and examples of such places are the library, cinemas, museums, art galleries etc. It is interesting to learn that most parts or towns in the country with such good and abundant human resources lack good and effective places where information can be obtained to help educate and make one communicate more effectively. It is therefore my duty to provide Sunyani with one of such places and the library became my choice. The reasons being that the library is to draw people away from the haunts that have degraded their personality and to give them a taste or view of life of theirs and of others which lifting them morally spiritually, economically, intellectually etc. through the good habit of reading and viewing of educative firms. The projects name as suggested by my client is the Sunyani Regional Library which aims at designing a suitable and fitting library to accommodate other facilities and the various sections of the library suitable for better operations at regional level. This is to be one by studying the existing small scale branch library in Sunyani and the clients brief. It is also necessary to study and make comparative studies of the operations of libraries in general, both local and foreign. The design proposal should take into account the future operation and expansion of the library services as planned by the board. The Sunyani Regional Library should therefore perform its functions satisfactorily both on the opening day, and for generations to come. The scheme has to avoid designing a building which may become out of date quickly. SCOPE Scope of the thesis apart from meeting the requirements of the client is to study ways and means of commercializing some services rendered by the library for a minimal fee so that in the long run; the library can generate funds to support some of its operations. CLIENT My client are the Ghana Library Board. FINANCIERS Ghana Library Board and Ghana Book Trust and Valco Trust Fund

Source: KNUST
Regional Theatre — Kumasi

Urbanisation is a phenomenon, which characterises settlements with large populations manifesting a rather dichotomous expression of progress and problems as found both in the socio-economic, cultural and physical structures found in the Urban environment which is often described as the “City Culture’. When rapid urbanisation becomes the trend of the time, facilities are always needed to cater for the intellectual, psychological and recreational needs of the urban man. There is also the need for facilities that help regulate and refine socio-cultural development within the social context of urban development. Urbanisation also brings along with it a situation of rapid cultural dynamism, which, auguring well for development also necessitates, the preservation of certain social art forms not only for historical purposes but also for entertainment and educational purposes. The Performing Arts, from the Greek Amphitheatre to the local Concert Parties or Popular Theatres of the present day social context of Ghana, have always played a significant role in the development of man both socially and politically, mostly due to the audience-actor relationship serving as a means of imparting knowledge or information. The growth of a country does not only depend on the ingenuity of the Economist alone but also on the mental and psychological development of the nation .It cannot therefore be over emphasized, given the present day social context in Ghana that there is the need for the provision of facilities that should make it possible for the redirecting and rejuvenation of the nation.

Source: KNUST
Regression models for predicting daily IGS zenith tropospheric delays in West Africa: Implication for GNSS meteorology and positioning applications

The ability to precisely and accurately model and predict tropospheric delay is essential for precise global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and meteorological applications. The International GNSS Service (IGS) provides highly accurate and highly reliable daily time series zenith tropospheric delay (ZTD) products for all its member sites using data from each IGS site. Nevertheless, if for reasons such as poor internet connectivity, equipment failure, and power outages the IGS station is inaccessible, gaps are created in the data archive, resulting in degrading the quality of the ZTD estimation, as well as inhibits the quality of precipitable water vapour (PWV) estimation, needed for precise positioning applications, meteorological studies, and weather forecasting. To address this challenge, five regression models are proposed in this study to model and predict daily ZTDs using daily datasets from four IGS stations in West Africa over a period of 5 years (2015–2019). The site-specific Vienna Mapping Functions 3 (VMF3) products (ZTD, pressure, temperature, water vapour partial pressure) and stations' coordinates (latitudes and longitudes) are used as the predictors, while the IGS final ZTD product as the response variable in fitting the models. Several performance measures are calculated to compare the predictive performance of the models. The results show that the five regression models performed outstandingly and agree very well with the IGS-ZTD data, and hence provide a useful alternative for ZTD predictions and also in the event the West African IGS stations' ZTD data are unavailable. Nonetheless, the support vector regression model outperformed the remaining four models.

Source: KNUST
Regularising small scale mining in Gbane and Sherigu in the Upper East Region of Ghana: the miner’s perspective

The study sought to determine why small scale miners in Gbane and Sherigu, in the Upper East Region of Ghana, remain unregistered; understand acquisition processes for obtaining land for small scale mining and how miners could be supported to regularise their activities. It further identified license acquisition requirements for miners and assessed current forms and stages of regularisation of small scale miners’ operations. The research strategy was case study with snowball as the sampling technique. Data was collected with a questionnaire from 40 respondent mine pit owners; 30 from Gbane and 10 from Sherigu. Two Focus Group Discussions were held in both communities with a total of 14 participants. The study also interviewed four Key Informants and used Direct Observation in collecting data. Factors that prevented miners from regularizing operations were; high cost of license, bureaucracy and its associated lengthy waiting periods for license to be processed, and lack of support or incentives for miners to regularize. Cost of acquiring a license included the statutory payments at some stages of the licensing process and the informal and unapproved fees paid to government officials. Miners in the study were mostly migrants (55%), from neighbouring communities and districts, but Ghanaians aged between 20 and 56 years. These miners operated on lands leased to them by community members and Chiefs. All miners interviewed went through various processes to acquire lands for small scale activities, which involved informal negotiations and verbal agreements. All lands released to miners were without tenure security. Miners in turn rewarded land owners, chiefs and other influential persons in the communities, after every excavation. All respondent miners met the basic license acquisition requirements on age and nationality. Most miners (80%) operated as individuals and 20% in groups but on smaller land sizes, often operating on less than an acre (0.4ha) of land. Whiles 12.5% of miners possessed site plans of areas being mined; only 2.5% were operating with an environmental permit. In all, 10% of miners had started the process to get regularized and were at different stages of the process. The study identified access to credit, introduction of miner-sensitive and easy-to-use technologies, regular trainings, and availability of incentives or support as ways to encourage miners to regularise.

Source: KNUST
Regularization of Hammerstein type operator equation

Since the birth of Hammerstein’s non-linear integral equation in 1930, much research has been undertaken. In early 1960, Zarantonello, Minty and Kacurovskii introduced the theory of monotone mappings. From this time forward, many authors have studied Hammerstein’s type operator equations in various directions and forms. These studies have peaked at monotone maps in uniformly convex Banach spaces. In this thesis, we study Hammerstein’s type operator equation in more general Reflexive Banach spaces (eg., Hilbert spaces, L spaces, l<p<∞) with maximal monotone mappings. We have employed regularization techniques to study solutions of the Hammerstein’s type operator equations.

Source: KNUST
Regulation and supervision of microfinance institutions in Ghana- the way forward.

The objective of the study was to provide an exposition on the legal and regulatory framework for microfinance operations in Ghana as well as to determine the causes and effects of the rampant collapse of Microfinance Institutions in Ghana. A comparative study of microfinance regulation and supervision in Kenya, a country noted for its strides in microfinance, was undertaken. A content analysis of the legal, regulatory and institutional framework for regulation of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in both Ghana and Kenya was employed in the study. To determine the causes and effects of the failure of Microfinance Institutions, questionnaires were administered to some members of the public and staff of MFIs and Rural and Community Banks who were selected based on convenience. It was discovered that Bank of Ghana adopts a tiered approach to regulation with the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act being the primary statute for regulating Microfinance Institutions. The study identified bad management practices, ineffective supervision by Bank of Ghana, unsustainable returns on customers’ deposit, excessive investment in capital assets and impunity arising from non-prosecution and punishment of perpetrators of microfinance and bank fraud as the main causes of the collapse of these institutions in Ghana. The collapse of these institutions has impacted negatively on the confidence of the public with attendant reduction in deposit mobilisation implying negative saving habit with spiralling job losses. Taking a cue from what pertains in Kenya, the study recommends that a separate Act be enacted to regulate MFIs in Ghana considering their peculiar nature and the risk they confront whilst establishing a second-tier regulator akin to ARB Apex Bank to assist in the regulation of Microfinance Institutions in Ghana. The study proposes that the recently introduced ‘Fit and Proper’ Guidelines providing for qualification to the Board and Key Management positions of banks should be extended to Microfinance Institutions to enhance corporate governance within the subsector. The study also recommends for capping interest on deposit to enhance liquidity and the immediate implementation of the Deposit Protection Scheme to enhance depositors’ confidence in microfinance in Ghana.

Source: KNUST
Regulations of Microfinance Institutions in Ghana: A Case Study of First Allied Savings and Loans Limited

Responding to the rapid growth of various types of microfinance institutions (MFIs) around the world and the gap in knowledge on whether and how these institutions should be regulated, a research work is being conducted to provide a framework for addressing regulatory issues which impact the operations and the institutional development of MFIs. Kumasi which was selected for this assessment has a wide range of informal, semi-formal and formal MFIs providing financial services to the poor. Subsequent in depth - work on issues in developing sustainable rural / microfinance in Kumasi presented an opportunity to deepen the assessment of how the legal and regulatory environment is important to sustainable microfinance. This study shows the Framework Regulating Microfinance Institutions with emphasis on First Allied Savings and Loans in Kumasi. The Regulations of MFI's which was discussed included Minimum Capital Requirement, Provisioning, Collateral, Capital Adequacy, Operations, Ownership and Corporate Governance, Enforcement among others. This Research is to ascertain whether FASLC has been able to work within the Framework Regulating MFI's in Ghana and also whether the Supervision Department has played their role in ensuring effective supervision of MFI's especially First Allied Savings and Loans Company.

Source: KNUST
Rehabilitation of small scale mined out areas

Rehabilitation of mined out areas provides ecological, economic and social benefits to the community, and non rehabilitated disturbed areas deprive communities from benefiting from their land after mining. In order for communities to benefit from their land after mining, it is necessary for small scale mining companies to rehabilitate their mined out areas. Hardly do small scale mining companies rehabilitate their mined oat areas even though Section eight (8) of the Environmental Permit for small scale mining requires that the company should backfill pits and conduct concurrent reclamation whenever possible and the Section ten (10) also indicates that during abandonment, companies are expected to rehabilitate the site to a condition consistent with the preexisting character and utility of the area. The inability of these miners to undertake this task could be due to several factors, among which is the dearth of knowledge in the cost of rehabilitating their mined out areas. The research determined the cost estimate of rehabilitating a twenty five acres (25 acres) or ten hectares (10 ha) of land normally allocated to small scale miners and identified indigenous and exotic species that are suitable for reclaiming small scale mined out areas and also, made appropriate recommendations. A model was developed by using the data on the cost of rehabilitating and monitoring of one hectare degraded land to serve as a guide for small scale miners to estimate the cost of rehabilitating the whole of the 25 - acre (10 ha) of land normally allocated to them. To ascertain the species’ suitability for rehabilitation of small scale mined out areas, a set of sixteen species which included four exotic and twelve indigenous species were planted on waste dump and tailings dam, where liquid waste containing had been discharged. Their growths were determined by measuring their diameters at breast height (dbh) over a period of eighteen months (November 2003 - May 2005). Two of the exotic species (Acacia mangium and Albizia lebbeck) could be interplanted with four of the indigenous species (Terminalia ivorensis, Term inalia superba, Antiaris toxicaria and Ceiba pentandra) since they thrive well on degraded lands. It was recommended that progressive rehabilitation should be encouraged and small scale mining companies should post reclamation bond that could be used in the rehabilitation of abandoned mined sites.

Source: KNUST