ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Assessing Working Capital Management at Federated Commodities Limited

This study is envisaged to come out with different approaches and techniques of managing working capital (short-term financing) in order to solidify the financial base of Federated Commodities Limited. The researcher has therefore set for himself the aim of examining and evaluating the working capital management practices of FEDCO f<5r the past three years; these are 2005, 2006 and 2007 financial years.The researcher employed both primary and secondary data sourcing techniques. The primary data was obtained through the use of basically questionnaires and interviews along-side. With regards to secondary data, they were sourced from financial statements and auditors' reports of the Company. Empirical evidences from works done by other researchers were also resorted to. Analyses were done by employing both qualitative and quantitative measures in order to test the stated objectives of the researcher. In the findings, the researches revealed that cash flows into and out of the company were highly significant. But, with weak management of the components of working capital (stocks, debtors, creditors, cash and cash equivalents and accruals), the company was plunged into both over-trading and illiquidity, occasionally. On the basis of the findings, the researcher recommends critical attention should be given to working capital management practices of FEDCO. The study concludes on the observations of the need for rigorous effort to be made by all stakeholders of FEDCO in terms of corporate governance, to understand and appreciate the dare consequences of liquidity on the survivorship of companies. As much as possible, information asymmetry between and amongst stakeholders should be eliminated or minimised for each to have access to information needed and be able to contribute meaningfully towards the rejuvenation of the finances of the company. Stakeholders who need further education on working capital should do well to obtain and that all must endeavour to understand that no single function of the organisation shall survive into fruition, not even sub-optimal results, if the finances of the firm wobble into crush.

Source: KNUST
An Assessment of Internal Control System on the Image of the Hospitality Industries in Royal Mac-Dic Hotel and Capital View Hotels

This research is an investigation of how internal control systems help in the projection of the image of the hospitality industry. The study used MacDic Royal Plaza Hotel and Capital view Hotel all in Koforidua the capital of Eastern Region as a case study. The hospitality industry covers a whole range of services and activities. The industry has seen massive expansion owning to the growth of the tourism industry and other factors. The study aimed at assessing the internal control systems in the hospitality industry. The population for the study was made of two hundred (200) of which 100 was sampled using a purposive sampling technique base on the position of the respondent in their respective organisations. Out of the sample size, forty ( 40) where chosen from Mac Dic Royal Hotel ( 15males,25 females ) and 60 respondents from Capital View Hotel ( 25males, 35 females). The tool for the data collection was a self-constructed questionnaire. The findings of the data analysis revealed that, majority of respondents were not certain whether the organizations had an up to date accounting policies and procedures manual. The analysis also showed that majority of the respondents (47.8%) were sure that the organizations have an organizational chart that clearly defines lines of authority and responsibility. The research further showed that Control activities occur throughout the organization, at all levels, and in all functions. Determining whether a particular internal control system is effective is a judgment resulting from an assessment of whether the five components - Control Environment, Risk Assessment, Control Activities, Information and Communication, and Monitoring - are present and functioning. Effective controls provide reasonable assurance regarding the accomplishment of established objectives.

Source: KNUST
An assessmemnt of the impact of the biometric management system on the operations of the National Health Insuranse Scheme – A case study of the Asante Akim North Nhis district office

The National Health Insurance Scheme has been facing a lot of challenges since its inception in the year 2004. The primary challenges among others include payment of claims to health providers under the scheme, registration and enrollment of citizens onto the scheme, etc. The Biometric Management System was then introduced in 2014 to cure certain problems being encountered such as the claims payment and enrollment. This study is thus motivated through the use of quantitative explanatory analysis to come out as the first hand information to ascertain the impact of the Biometric Management System (BMS) on the monthly enrollment and claims payment levels and to again analyse the trend taken by the enrollment and claims payment at the Asante Akim North and Central Districts. The Paired-Sampled T test is employed as one of the most common experimental designs for the "pre-post" design. It is revealed that the correlation between the levels of registration between the two periods is not statistically significant at the 0.05 levels of significance. Similarly the correlation between claims payment over the two regimes or periods is also not significant. On the effects of BMS, it is proven that there is no significant difference between monthly mean of enrollment between the two regimes. Similar thing can be said about the mean difference in claims payment. However, the ordinary least square approach was used in determining the trend of enrollment and claims payment and it revealed that both have been taking an upward trend over the last three years. Since the BMS has not taken immediate impact especially in claims payment as expected, it is recommended that to management to probe further for possible reasons for such failure. Moreover, the significant positive trend in levels of monthly claims payment should be considered alongside the revenue levels to the scheme in the district to bring the two to an acceptable level of pegging. This is very necessary if the future sustenance and improvement of the scheme is under consideration.

Source: KNUST
An Assessment and Treatment of the Guinea Worm Disease in the Sekyere East District of the Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Dracunculiasis (Guinea Worm Disease) is a parasitic disease that is limited to remote, rural villages in thirteen (13) Sub-Saharan African countries that do not have access to safe drinking water. It is one of the diseases targeted for eradication by the World Health Organization (WHO). Carter Center for Disease Control (2007) has it that the greatest burden of guinea worm disease today occur in Sudan, Ghana, and Nigeria. These three countries account for 93% of all cases worldwide with Sudan reporting 73% of the cases. The general objective of the study was to identify the factors associated with guinea worm disease in the Sekyere East District of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The specific objectives were among other things: to find out the number of people affected by the guinea worm disease, to identify the full range of social, economic and demographic factors which predispose the people to guinea worm disease, to identify the various treatment regimes used by the affected and to use the findings to recommend to the stakeholders on the improvement of water systems of the people in the district and thus eradication of the guinea worm disease. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional household survey. Three towns were selected out of which fifty (50) households were chosen from each town. In each of the fifty households, twenty (20) were picked and entered based on every third count. Detailed questionnaire and observation were used to collect data to assess the impact of the disease and the treatment regimes in operation. Data analysis was done using SPSS Version 14 and Microsoft Excel 2007. Most of the respondents (73%) had knowledge about the guinea worm disease. Many respondents were also seen to have been affected with guinea worm disease (33%) but treated, 33.30% said they drank from lakes, rivers and streams. An appreciable number of respondents (66.70%) had access to pipe borne water. Quite a number of respondents did not treat water before drinking (33%) and those who did that used boiling, filtering, chlorination as means to control guinea worm disease. The study showed that early reporting of cases, wounds dressing and so on were used as treatment measures. Supply of boreholes, health education and low - technology measures to promote behavioural change, and introduction of water treatment products like Aquatabs among other things were suggested as means to treat and eradicate/prevent guinea worm disease.

Source: KNUST
Assessing Urban Flood Risks under Changing Climate and Land Use in Abidjan District, South Cote d’Ivoire

Climate change has become one of the global environmental issues more visible in recent decades. Flooding is one of the natural disasters that combine with climate change to create effects and cause some of the most destructive damages in Cote d’Ivoire. The District of Abidjan located in the south of Cote d'Ivoire which is subjected to heavy rainfall, rapid population growth and uncontrolled urbanisation is not an exception to the problem of flood risk. The aim of this study was to identify, map and model areas of flood risk to facilitate decision making for better land use planning under changing climate in this District. The maximum likelihood classification algorithm and post-classification change detection procedures were used in this study. The spatio-temporal land use/ land cover change in relation to urbanisation sprawl was assessed based on a series of Landsat images for 1990, 2002 and 2014. Statistical methods were also used to characterise and determine hydro-climatic drivers of flood. LARS-WG model was used to generate future scenario based on HadCM3 model and SRA1B emissions and in rclimdex model, ten (10) rainfall indices were calculated. LARS-WG and rclimdex were used to determine and analyse trends of rainfall and temperature under present and future climatic conditions. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method as a multi-criteria analysis allows the integration of several elements under two criteria: hazard and vulnerability for flood risk assessment and mapping. Flood Hazard Index (FHI) model was carried out to determine flood prone areas by combining rational and statistical methods. The results revealed urban area expansion (15%) as a major land use change for the period 1990-2014. However, there was an important increase in urban area between 2002 and 2014, compared to 1990-2002. Regarding future weather, LARS-WG statistical results showed that, temperature will increase from 0.32°C to 2.54°C for the period 2011-2100. Also, rainfall in the same period will increase from 4 %, to 10 %. Results of rclimdex through ten (10) rainfall indices and comparison between observed and future indices indicated an increased trend of some rainfall indices: Consecutive wet Days (CWD) and number of heavy rainfall days above 10mm (R10) from 2011 to 2100. AHP flood risk map showed that areas under high and very high flood risk covers 34% of the study area while Flood Hazard Index (FHI) model revealed that about 25.09 % of the study area were within the high FHI areas. Both results showed that eight out of thirteen (8/13) municipalities of Abidjan District are within high and very high flood risk areas. Therefore, there is a need for decision makers to call for optimal design of technical solutions and an effective preparedness strategy to be developed for future flood occurrence within Abidjan District (South of Cote d’Ivoire).

Source: KNUST
Assessment flood management systems along the Aboabo river, Kumasi

Flooding has been a recurrent problem in the Aboabo river basin for many years now. It has resulted in loss of lives and properties in diverse ways. Flood management institutions and households over the years have adopted different control measures in their bid to address the problem. Despite their continuous effort to solve the problem it still persists. This research sought to identify the causes and socio-economic effects of flooding and the institutional challenges associated with flood control measures adopted in addressing these problems. Additionally, the coping strategies of residents were also investigated. To investigate the problem communities along the Aboabo River such as Dichemso, Asawase-apagyahene, Aboabo, Anloga and Amakom were selected for the study. Surveys were held with household heads in the study communities to solicit their views on the causes of flooding, effectiveness of flood control mechanisms implemented as well as the coping strategies adopted. Key officials of related institutions were also interviewed to capture their view about the problem and identify the various flood control measures put in place. It was found out that poor drainage system in the basin contributes significantly to flooding aside the obvious natural factor of precipitation. Also indiscriminate disposal of solid waste, in the Aboabo River, haphazard development on floodplain further worsens the problem. The effects were mainly health, psychological, environmental and economic related problems. Among the flood control measures implemented were desilting of the Aboabo River, construction of flood breaks, temporary drains, and clearance of choked drains. Institutional challenges of flood control include inadequate resources and logistics, poor methods of waste disposal practices in the basins and inability to fully enforce land use regulations along the river. Again, the study revealed the major coping strategies as movement to higher grounds, seeking for external support and clearance of choked drains. Finally, in order to address these problems it was recommended that in the immediate term the drainage system in the basin should be improved while methods of solid waste disposal and collection should be strictly monitored by waste management departments. At the same time land use laws and regulation should be enforced. In the long term a road map should be drawn for gradual relocation and decongestion of residents in the green belt and floodplain of river Aboabo.

Source: KNUST
Assessment of alternative indigenous fish species for culture in Ghana; case study of Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus (Lacepède, 1803)

This study consisted of two parts with the first assessing fish farmers’ knowledge on Chrysichthys nigrodigitatus in the Ashanti Region while the second aspect assessed the growth performance, feed utilization and body composition of C. nigrodigitatus on formulated diets. Aspects of the life history traits, ecology and natural distribution of C. nigodigitatus were investigated through a survey on indigenous knowledge on the species. Five farmers in Kumasi and its environs were selected and interviewed to gather information on the species. Overall knowledge on the species was low, farmers indicated that C. nigrodigitatus is dominant in the Offin River. The species is omnivorous, survives under pond conditions, feed on compound feeds with appreciable growth of 0.5-1 kg in 6 months. There is the need to protect the species because of their restricted distribution. An experiment was conducted over 10 weeks to determine the optimal inclusion level of protein in diets for C. nigrodigitatus, in twelve indoor 60-L rectangular glass tanks designed as flow through systems. Four experimental diets were formulated to be isoenergetic containing varying crude protein (CP) levels (32.1%, 34.6%, 42.8%, and 47.1%) using fish meal/soybean meal as sources of protein. Each dietary treatment was run in triplicate with 12 fingerlings (initial weight 16.30 ± 0.07 g) in a completely randomized design. Results showed that body weight gain (BWG%) and specific growth rate increased up to 42.8% (P <0.05) but declined at 47.1% CP. Protein efficiency ratio followed a similar trend with no significant differences between the treatments. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) decreased with increasing dietary protein level. Dose-response analysis in addition to the polynomial broken stick regression ascertained that the optimal protein requirement in diets for juvenile C. nigrodigitatus is 42.8%. Data from proximate composition of fish flesh showed that C. nigrodigitatus had CP (15.77%- 19.37%), lipid (2.8%-5%), moisture (73.26%-73.69%) and ash (3.8%-4.96%). It is recommended that diets for juvenile C. nigroditatus are formulated with a protein inclusion level of 42.8%.

Source: KNUST
Assessment And Reclamation Of An Abandoned Diamond Mined Soil Using Agricultural Residue Compost

The main aim of the study was to investigate the potential use of agricultural residue compost to reclaim an abandoned and degraded diamond mined soil. The specific objectives were to subject the degraded soil to specific rate of compost treatment and assess effect on soil quality characteristics; to determine the most suitable soil incubation rate; and to evaluate the best treatment suitable for plant growth. The experiment was carried out at the University of Ghana‘s Forest and Horticultural Research Centre (FOHCREC) - Okumaning near Kade in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Potted experiment was conducted to investigate the potential of using compost to ameliorate and improve the quality of degraded soil from abandoned diamond mine sites. The compost was obtained from FOHCREC. The degraded mined soil was obtained from an abandoned diamond mined site at Akim Wenchi. Control experiment was conducted using unmined soil obtained from about 500 metres away from the mined site. Varying ratios of soil/compost treatments were applied in a potted experiment to grow maize to help evaluate the most suitable treatment. Samples of the various treatments were taken to the laboratory for the determination of the physicochemical parameters (total nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P), total potassium (K), Calcium (Ca), percentage organic matter, pH, bulk density, and electrical conductivity), and heavy metals such as cadmium(Cd), lead (Pb) and mercury (Hg). Data obtained were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using Genstat Statistical software version 9.2. ANOVA results of the treatments shows that N, P, organic matter, pH, Cd and Hg vary significantly whiles K and bulk density were not statistically different. Furthermore, only Cd was found to be significantly different among the three incubation rates. The plant dry biomass was used to assess the growth of the maize plants. Among the no incubation rate treatments, T5 produced the highest mean of dry biomass of 0.0058 g/m2. This suggests that the maize grew well in no incubated media where one part of the mined soil was combined with three parts of compost. The treatments affected some soil quality characteristics such as increase in total N, available P, organic matter and lower bulk density. There was no statistical difference between the three incubation rates. Hence, the incubation rates did not affect the growth of the maize significantly. Among the treatments, T5 produced the highest plant dry biomass in the no incubation growth media. Hence, T5 was the best treatment for planting maize. It was recommended that the incubation periods should be extended to see if it will affect the plant growth. Moreover, Municipal waste compost or biochar should be used for further work.

Source: KNUST
Assessment of a typical small Hydropower site for rural electrification in the Western Region of Ghana

Small hydropower is one of the promising renewable energy sources in Ghana. Despite the small hydropower potential, Ghana is yet to develop small hydropower plants to supplement her energy needs. The main focus of this research work is on the identification of potential small hydropower site for the generation of energy as an alternative source of rural electrification and reduction of poverty in the Western Region of Ghana. In this study, the capital cost of such a rural electrification project, unit cost of generation, and unit cost of electricity to the end user are analyzed. The results indicate that a typical 60 kW small-scale hydropower plant would serve about 365 household with an average of 5 persons per household. The 60 kW power was obtained from using the head of 24 m and a flow rate of 0.5〖 m〗^3/s . The total capital cost is GH¢ 283,935.53 (US$ 139,000). The specific construction cost per kW is GH¢4698.21 (US$ 2,300) and unit energy cost was found to be GH¢ 0.31(US$ 0.15). The project would deliver 525,600 kWh/year. The RETScreen computer program which is commonly used in the North America is capable of evaluating the energy generation, investment and maintenance costs for small hydro-projects. The results also indicate that small-scale hydropower project would be favourable if government takes keen interest in its implementation. Small hydropower introduction in the rural community will enhance the quality of life for rural dwellers in numerous ways: improved lighting, more entertainment, communication options, replacement of paraffin lamps, supports rural enterprises, clinics etc.

Source: KNUST
Assessment of Audit Internal Control Practices in the Eastern Regional Hospital, Koforidua

This study assesses audit internal control practices in the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua with the aim of improving efficiency in the performance of the hospital. This was achieved by determining the internal control practices at Regional Hospital, the problems associated with the internal control practices and the staff perception on the internal audit department on internal control systems. A cross sectional descriptive survey employing quantitative methods of data collection and analysis was used for the study. Primary sources of data collections were used and these were done through the use of questionnaires which were both open and closed ended questions. A total of ninety two (92) questions were administered to the staff of the hospital using the stratified sampling method where each department was taken as a starter and sample drawn proportionally from them. The data collected were presented using tables and analysed using percentages. A major finding of the study is that, the main problems affecting internal control at the hospital are inadequate audit staff, inadequate logistics and intimidation and interference from staff. It was recommended that management should recruit more audit staff and provide the logistics needed for effective internal control practices at the hospital.

Source: KNUST