ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Enhancing the economic growth of Africa: Does banking sector efficiency matter?

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between banking sector efficiency and economic growth in Africa. Methodology/approach - The paper used the stochastic frontier approach stating the banking sector cost function as a Fourier flexible to estimate bank efficiency. We then used the Arellano-Bond GMM estimator to investigate the relationship between banking sector efficiency and economic growth. Annual data for banking sector financial statements were used in estimating efficiency scores. Findings - The study found banking sector efficiency in the sample to be 69%. We also found a positive relationship between banking sector efficiency and economic growth, confirming the critical role banks play in the economy. Practical implications - Banking sector efficiency score of 69% implies banks in Africa could save up to 31% of their total cost if they were to operate efficiently. Policy direction should therefore focus on policies and incentives that will improve the efficiency of the banking sector and hence economic growth. The study brings to the fore the importance of the qualitative aspect of the banking sector in allocating financial resources in the real economy. Focus in the real economy should not be only on the size of the banking system but also on the quality with which resources are allocated. Originality/value of paper - This study is among the first dedicated solely to African countries. It does set the pace for future research in the area and also confirms in Africa the Schumpeterian hypothesis that the banking sector is key in allocating resources in the real economy. Copyright © 2012 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Source: UG
Enigmatic morphology of Djinga felicis (Podostemaceae - Podostemoideae), a badly known endemic from northwestern Cameroon

Djinga is a monotypic genus restricted to the Cameroon Ridge ('Dorsale Camerounaise') of NW Cameroon. Besides the type locality Mount Djinga (Adamawa Province, near Tignère), it also grows in waterfalls near Mount Oku (NW Province). This paper describes the structure and development of Djinga felicis using scanning electron microscopy and microtome sections. Cusset's protologue is enriched considerably. Roots are green, dorsiventrally flattened and adherent to submerged rocks. They are broad ribbons or crusts (up to 1 cm broad) which branch exogenously. Root-borne shoots (up to 17 cm) have filamentous leaves with sheaths and (occasionally) attached stipules. Flowers are borne as part of reproductive short shoots which arise exogenously along the stems and endogenously along the roots. Djinga shows non-axillary stem branching. Reproductive shoots along the main stem usually stay short. They arise from the abaxial side of double-sheathed leaves, a key innovation of Podostemoideae. These short shoots shift into pocket-like stem positions clearly below their associated leaves. Each flower bud inside a spathella is erect, but with an inclined ovary. The flowers are unistaminate with a broad connective. Unlike many other Podostemoideae, the tricolpate pollen grains are arranged in both dyads and monads. The ovary is globular and unilocular. The mature 8-ribbed capsule dehisces by two slightly unequal valves, releasing 40-50 seeds. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London.

Source: UG
Enjoy The Dance And Look For The Flag Meaning: Asafo Flag Dancers' Choreography Of Concealing And Revealing

The literature on Fante asafo art reveals that frankaakitafo (flag) dancers) carry, dance with, and display asafo flags, created from European flags displayed on the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and now used as a traditional dance prop. This is different from how the Europeans carried them in marching and salutation. What is missing from the scholarship is an examination of the collaborative working relations between different performers and the nature of the dance. A study of the dance reveals a phenomenon which is similar to a spectacle and lasts only for a short transitory period. I, therefore, take into account Frances Harding’s (2002) suggestion that we must identify the art and artists, the presence and role of the venue and audience in creating the conditions for a performance, and the possibility of a sacred presence. Thus, asafo dance performance transcends spiritual boundaries. Not only is the dance associated with the gestures of the company’s or dancers’ deity and the company’s self-proclaimed belief in its military supremacy, but There is also a considerable display of skill and dexterity on the part of the dancer. This The article investigates how the frankaakitanyi (singular) is trained and dances with the flag and the collaborators involved. It also examines the content of selected flags, which are both a dance prop and a work of art.

Source: UG
Enjoyment of Statutory Employee Rights? A Myth or a Reality in Ghana

This study used empirical evidence to examine the extent of compliance with various labour regulations amongst private and public sector organisations. The study was conducted in Accra with data collected from 126 respondents between the period June and December, 2012. Accra was selected because it seats the headquarters of most organisations, where the HR unit is usually stationed. The study provided in-depth insight into the nature and extent of the violations of employee rights in Ghana. It suggests that whilst most HR managers complied with most of the provisions of the Labour Act, some provisions were ignored, in spite of its consequences. The findings of this study would help policy makers and regulators provide an effective mechanism to protect employee rights and ensure an effective compliance with labour regulations

Source: UG
Enrolment of older people in social health protection programs in West Africa – Does social exclusion play a part?

Although the population of older people in Africa is increasing, and older people are becoming increasingly vulnerable due to urbanisation, breakdown of family structures and rising healthcare costs, most African countries have no social health protection for older people. Two exceptions include Senegal's Plan Sesame, a user fees exemption for older people and Ghana's National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) where older people are exempt from paying premiums. Evidence on whether older people are aware of and enrolling in these schemes is however lacking. We aim to fill this gap. Besides exploring economic indicators, we also investigate whether social exclusion determines enrolment of older people. This is the first study that tries to explore the social, political, economic and cultural (SPEC) dimensions of social exclusion in the context of social health protection programs for older people. Data were collected by two cross-sectional household surveys conducted in Ghana and Senegal in 2012. We develop SPEC indices and conduct logistic regressions to study the determinants of enrolment. Our results indicate that older people vulnerable to social exclusion in all SPEC dimensions are less likely to enrol in Plan Sesame and those that are vulnerable in the political dimension are less likely to enrol in NHIS. Efforts should be taken to specifically enrol older people in rural areas, ethnic minorities, women and those isolated due to a lack of social support. Consideration should also be paid to modify scheme features such as eliminating the registration fee for older people in NHIS and creating administration offices for ID cards in remote communities in Senegal.

Source: UG
Enseignement Et Apprentissage Des Langues : Une Exploitation Pedagogique Des Jeux En Classe De Fle Dans Quelques Ecoles De Base À Accra Au Ghana

The teaching of languages in general and of French in particular, especially in the English-speaking context of Ghana, requires motivation to arouse students’ interest in learning. Learners’ motivation can be linked to several factors, including well-organized and operated classroom games. This article seeks to highlight the mechanisms of ‘gamification’ in the FFL (French as a foreign language) classroom, and its impact on the learners’ acquisition of language skills as observed in four basic schools in the Accra Metropolis. Based on an observation, an interview, and a month-long hands-on desk experimentation in these schools, the conclusion is that playful activities (digital games) not only motivate children and contribute enormously to the linguistic development of young French learners, but also facilitate the teaching/learning process, and strongly encourage the participation of learners in language classes. The article thus offers some guidelines to the teachers of the language class in relation to the selection of games in the FFL class.

Source: UG
Ensuring Accountability in State-owned Enterprises : Examining the Role of Annual Reports from a Middle Income Country’s Perspectiv

State-owned Enterprises (SoEs) in developing countries have been the leading beneficiaries of several reforms in attempts to make them more accountable, thus ensuring efficiency and effectiveness in their operations. This is because SoEs have been recognized as one of the key contributors to the socio-economic development in developing economies. One of the key tools identified for ensuring accountability is their annual report. However, evidence on the role the annual report plays has been mixed. This study contributes empirically to the literature on the role of annual reports of SoEs, in the lightof reforms using evidence from Ghana

Source: UG
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all: the role of Ghanaian academic libraries in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Good health and well-being are central to human development. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3 highlights the aspirations of this new universal agenda towards healthy living and well-being by 2030. All institutions, stakeholders, acting in collaborative partnership are expected to help national government attain the SDGs. This paper assesses the role of ten academic libraries in Ghana in meeting the Sustainable Development Goal 3. Using the case study approach, ten librarians were interviewed to ascertain the current and future roles in attaining the SDG3, their mode of collaboration and the challenges they encounter in the implementation of SDG3. Findings reveal that librarians have been collaborating with health and allied institutions in an often subtle manner to address some health concerns of the communities they serve. Traditional authorities, youth groups, faith-based organisations as well as government agencies were identified as potent partners for libraries to collaborate with to help attain the SDG 3. Interpersonal methods such as Focus Group Discussions and role-play, as well as mass methods such as print, electronic and social media, posters and flyers were identified as efficient means to reach out to people for the purposes of ensuring healthy lives and well-being. Issues which emerged as possible threat to this effort include perceived role conflict, funding, credibility of information, community acceptance. It is recommended that for any initiative of this nature to succeed, there must be a strong policy at the local or inter-institutional level for increased cooperation. Librarians on the other hand, are expected to assert themselves and play a strong advocacy role in addressing an important national agenda such as the SDG3.

Source: UG
Ensuring quality obstetric care in rural Ghana: Shared experiences of obstetric care providers

Purpose: To explore care provider lived experiences with obstetric care delivery in rural Ghana. Methods: This interpretative phenomenological study utilised a semi-structured interview guide to collect data on care provider lived experiences with obstetric care delivery. Participants comprised purposively sampled ob stetric care providers in selected health care facilities in the Northern Region of Ghana. Data processing and presentation followed interpretative phenomenological analysis procedure. Results: Findings reveal four superordinate themes: being persuasive, striving to provide quality care, using evasive mechanisms and subtle preventive schemes. These specifically refer to the use of alternative care, soliciting partner involvement, voluntarily donating blood, stocking essential items and drugs, refusing care in some instances and performing unconsented interventions. Conclusion: In their quest to provide quality care, obstetric care providers in some of Ghana’s rural health fa cilities adopt a mix of altruistic, innovative, excessive and unethical approaches most of which are driven by systemic failures. A government-community collaboration and commitment to quality maternal health care delivery is essential to improving health outcomes of rural mothers.

Source: UG
Ensuring sustainability via accessible transport systems for all in Accra and Kumasi

Africa is rapidly urbanising, and transport systems often cannot keep pace, leading to disconnected cities that might entrench car dependency (and preference), along with gender and socioeconomic inequality. In Ghana, transport emissions have risen 75% between 2000 to 2016, along with congestion, pollution and traffic accidents – despite attempts to quell the problem via bans on aged vehicles or more recently, penalties. This paper builds on prior work and argues that putting accessibility at the centre of transport systems will foster sustainability in these cities, yet such data is difficult to find, especially gender-sensitive mobility data. This paper uses a novel approach, combining qualitative and quantitative methods, to study the accessibility across genders in Kumasi and Accra and identify future scenarios for sustainable and accessible systems. This working paper presents preliminary findings.

Source: UG
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) vaccines: Priority activities to enable product development, licensure, and global access

The main research focus of the Electron Microscopy and Histopathology Department in the past 20 years has been in the areas of enteric diarrhoeas with special emphasis on rotavirus. Through its diarrhoea surveillance studies, the Department has helped to firmly establish rotaviruses as a major cause of diarrhoea in children, and document the circulation of unusual rotavirus genotypes in Ghana. The Department has also recently expanded its diagnostic repertoire to include the identification and characterization of noroviruses, astroviruses, and other enteric viruses.

Source: UG
Enterprise development? Local content, corporate social responsibility and disjunctive linkages in Ghana’s oil and gas industry

The government of Ghana, in partnership with various Multinational Oil Companies (MNCs), implemented an enterprise development project for the oil and gas industry. The government framed the project within a context of Local Content Policy (LCP) while MNCs approached it as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Both LCP and CSR initiatives have become essential strategies deployed by stakeholders to mitigate, among other things, the enclavity that characterises natural resource extraction across Africa. A disjunction between LCPs and CSRs undermines the success of projects deployed to enhance linkages in the extractive industries. This paper examines the Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) project and argues that the divergence in conceptualisation and processes informed by LCP and CSR perspectives affected the content, strategies and impacts, and led to/contributed to the collapse of the EDC. There was a lack of understanding between stakeholders on interests and strategy, coupled with limited alliance-building based on value co-creation, which led to the failure of the EDC project. Better engagement between stakeholders is needed for such projects to engender value cocreation which is central to their successful implementation to promote positive development outcomes from the oil and gas industry.

Source: UG
Entomological Assessment of the Status and Risk of Mosquito-borne Arboviral Transmission in Ghana

The Department of Parasitology conducts research into parasitic diseases of public health importance with the overall goal of reducing their transmission and the heavy disease burden that they impose on affected populations. The Department maintains focus on parasitic diseases in general. These include major diseases such as malaria, and others listed under the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) control initiative such as, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis.

Source: UG
Entomological risk assessment for transmission of arboviral diseases by Aedes mosquitoes in a domestic and forest site in Accra, Ghana

The Department of Parasitology conducts research into parasitic diseases of public health importance with the overall goal of reducing their transmission and the heavy disease burden that they impose on affected populations. The Department maintains focus on parasitic diseases in general. These include major diseases such as malaria, and others listed under the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) control initiative such as, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis.

Source: UG
Entomological risk factors for severe malaria in a peri-urban area of the Gambia. Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology

The Epidemiology Department contributes to the mission of the institute through basic and applied epidemiological research on, but not limited to, malaria and other diseases of public health importance. It is also home to the Social Science Unit of the Institute, including the Health Support Centre for HIV/AIDS and other communicable and noncommunicable health problems.

Source: UG
Entomological surveillance on Aedes aegypti during covid 19 period in Cape Coast, Ghana: Risk of arboviral outbreaks, multiple insecticide resistance and distribution of F1534C, V410L and V1016I kdr mutations

The Department of Parasitology conducts research into parasitic diseases of public health importance with the overall goal of reducing their transmission and the heavy disease burden that they impose on affected populations. The Department maintains focus on parasitic diseases in general. These include major diseases such as malaria, and others listed under the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) control initiative such as, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis.

Source: UG
“Entre ‘Femme noire’ de Senghor et Femme nue, femme noire de Beyala: réseau intertextuel de subversion et d’échos”

Many scholars object to Senghor’s idealization of the Black woman and the African past. « Femme noire », which is Senghor’s most famous poem, epitomizes this stereotyping impulse. Even if Beyala sets out in her novel, Femme nue, femme noire, to parody Senghor’s poem, it bears noting that her transgression nonetheless reveals her indebtedness to the poet. This article attempts to study the dual relationship of dissonance and consonance between the two texts in light of the concept of intertextuality.

Source: UG
Entrepreneurial alertness and new venture performance: Facilitating roles of networking capability

An ability to act upon an entrepreneurial opportunity is a major driver of new venture success. However, scholarly knowledge is limited on how and when entrepreneur alertness to entrepreneurial opportunities drives new venture success. This article addresses this gap arguing that variations in new venture performance are a function of levels of entrepreneurial alertness and networking capabilities. Using primary data gathered from 203 new ventures operating in a sub-Saharan African economy, Ghana, we find that increases in the levels of entrepreneurial alertness are related to increases in new venture performance. Additionally, we find that, under conditions of increased use of social and business networking capabilities, the potency of entrepreneurial alertness as a driver of new venture success is amplified. Theoretical, managerial and policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Source: UG
Entrepreneurial education, self-efficacy and intentions in Sub-Saharan Africa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and intention in Ghana, Africa. Design/methodology/approach In all, 357 questionnaires from final year undergraduate students at a public university in Ghana are analysed using linear multiple regression. Findings The study reveals that entrepreneurship knowledge acquisition and opportunity recognition as dimensions of entrepreneurship education positively affect entrepreneurial intention (EI) and self-efficacy. Also, ESE increases the development of EI. The results further show that ESE mediated the relationship between the two measures of entrepreneurship education and EI. Practical implications The findings imply that when students are exposed to entrepreneurship knowledge and opportunity recognition skills via entrepreneurship education, they can develop high ESE and intention to engage in venture creation. Findings therefore urge stakeholders in the education sector in Africa to formulate policy guidelines for the design and teaching of entrepreneurship education. Such policies and guidelines should emphasise more students’ acquisition of adequate knowledge in venture creation and management, and the development of skills for identifying business opportunities while instilling confidence in their abilities to become successful entrepreneurs. Originality/value The mediating role of ESE in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and intention has been under-researched globally not just in Africa. Hence, this first study to the best of the knowledge in a Sub-Saharan African context, contributes further empirical evidence by demonstrating that ESE is a central psychological mechanism that can convert entrepreneurship education into EI. Besides, the study defies some of the findings in advanced economies by indicating that a theoretical entrepreneurship education course in Africa may work differently than in advanced economies and may actually foster the development of EI unlike in advanced economies.

Source: UG
Entrepreneurial Instincts of Nurses and Midwives in Ghana

Background: In recent years, the popularity of entrepreneurship among nurses and midwives has increased. People in the nurs ing and midwifery professions have reaped numerous benefits from this endeavour. However, little is known about the reasons why nurses and midwives decide to become business owners. The aim of the study was to explore the motivation for entrepre neurial instincts among nurses and midwives in Ghana. Methodology: This qualitative study snowball- sampled nurses and midwives in the Greater Accra Region who have estab lished their health- related businesses. The participants consisted of eleven participants based on theoretical saturation. Using an interview guide, researchers gathered in- depth data on the discussed phenomenon and then analysed the data using thematic analysis. Results: Five themes were identified from analysis of data, and they are frustration at the former workplace, the desire to own a business, preserving family legacy, the necessity for extra income, and engaging in something during retirement. Conclusion: Nurses and midwives gain experience through their work as professionals, which motivates them to become en trepreneurs. In addition to these experiences, other factors play an important role in the entrepreneurial ambitions of nurses and midwives. Patient or Public Contribution: We are grateful to all nurses and midwives for their help during the study.

Source: UG