ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Factors affecting mortgage finance schemes in Ghana: a case study of Greater Accra Region

The United Nations General Assembly, in endorsing the Global Strategy for Shelter to the year 2000 acknowledged the pressi1g need for decent housing in the developing economies. In Ghana, the avenues for owning a house includes paying for it up front, build it over a period of time or fall on the services being offered by mortgage finance schemes. The services of these mortgage schemes are perceived as beyond the affordability threshold of a majority of shelter seekers. The objectives of the study are to identify and investigate the factors affecting mortgage finance schemes and how to address them. The study examines mortgage finance institutions, real estate developers and a cross- section of workers in the public sector. The study revealed that inflationary effects, low income of workers and high interest rates were the main factors directly affecting mortgage schemes. Inadequate plots for development and difficulty of accessing funds by the estate developers were also a draw back to the schemes. The study concludes by recommending a syndication of institutions in the industry for an optimisation of the use of their resources in housing delivery. It also recommends the establishment of a national housing fund to ensure the availability of funds for housing development. Finally land owners were encouraged to invest their interest in the land with investors as their equity in the investment. It is anticipated that this will attract more developers as they will no longer be required to make up front payment for plots of land. Land owners will also have the opportunity to trade off their land.

Source: KNUST
Factors affecting non-use of long-lasting insecticide treated nets among pregnant women in Kumasi Metropolis, Ghana

Pregnant women by virtue of their physiological status remain one of the most vulnerable groups to malaria. Malaria can adversely affect birth outcomes and can lead to a spontaneous abortion, pre-term labour, low birth weight, and stillbirth. Pregnancy on its part affects the prognosis of malaria and enhances progression to the severe form of the disease. The National Malaria Control Program therefore considers malaria in pregnancy as priority area to address. The study sought to investigate factors contributing to non-use of LLINs among pregnant women in Kumasi Metropolis. A cross-sectional design was used. Data was collected from pregnant women of all ages irrespective of the gestational age of the pregnancy at the household level between July and August 2019. In the study population 400, majority 309 (77.3%) are married women. The results indicated that 396 (99.0%) have a knowledge on how mosquito transmit malaria from one person to the other and 4 (1.0%) with no knowledge. Of 400 study population, 258 (81.6%) slept under LLIN the night prior to the study with 58 (18.4%) did not sleep under LLIN. There was no significant statistical association between socio-demographic characteristics and possession of LLIN’s and its use. The LLIN’s possession and its utilization was encouraging in the Kumasi Metropolis among pregnant women in the household as a result of free mass distribution of LLIN’s. National Malaria Control Programme should continue and sustain the free mass distribution of the LLIN’s to improve on household ownership and utilization.

Source: KNUST
Factors Affecting Performance In The Nursing Licensure Examination Among Diploma Graduates In Ashanti Region

Diploma in general nursing programmes are the primary avenues for basic nursing education in Ghana. In recent times, a large number of students who sit for the NMC-organised licensing examination fail on their first attempt. Nursing schools throughout the country are therefore concerned about the poor performance of nursing students in the NMC-organised licensure examination. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that affect diploma graduates’ performance in the Nursing Licensure examination in Ashanti Region.

Source: KNUST
Factors affecting performance of small and medium enterprises in the Kumasi metropolis - A case study of some selected SMES in the Kumasi metropolis.

The study was a case study of some selected SMEs within Kumasi Metro for an assessment of the impact of factors affecting performance of SMEs in the Kumasi Metropolis. The three main objectives of the study were to identify factors affecting performances of SMEs in the Kumasi Metropolis, to analyse the impact of the factors on performances of SMEs in the Kumasi Metropolis and to recommend appropriate solutions by which the performance of SMEs in the Kumasi Metropolis can be enhanced. In all, 300 entrepreneurs were sampled using stratified simple random sampling technique. Both questionnaires and interview were used to gather data for this study. Five major challenges facing SMEs in the Kumasi Metropolis were access to finance, education, managerial skills, business registration and influx of foreign goods. Regression model was used to test the impact of the above five variables on annual turnover and the result indicated that all the five factors except managerial skills, have significance influence on annual turnover. Access to finance was found to be the most influential factor among all. Some recommendation made were that, banks should make more credit facilities available and also ease their financial regulations in order to enable more SMEs have access to credit facilities to expand their businesses. Government and other financing agents such as venture capitalist were encouraged to prioritize and factor in SME support in their budgets. There should be more publicity on the existence of venture capital funds and education on how to access venture capital funds. SME owners should be encouraged to register their businesses to enable them formalize their businesses activities in order to attract investors. Various forms of data reliability and validity test such as homoscedasticity, heteroscedasticity, multicollinearity and autocorrelation, were performed on the data gathered, in order to conform to the best linear unbiased estimator.

Source: KNUST
Factors Affecting Pre-Project Planning in the Ghanaian Construction Industry: Impacts and Remedies

In Ghana Projects are often rushed without sufficient budgetary allocation and proper assessment about the need. The detailed briefing on the functional and technical requirements of construction projects is not carefully assessed by developers or owners and consequently creates lapses in the design and construction process. The aim of the study was to examine pre-project planning processes in Ghanaian construction industry and identify factors and impacts affecting the planning process. In collecting data for the study, a questionnaire was developed to assess the perception of clients, consultants and contractors on the relative importance of the factors and impacts identified. In all 80 respondents in the Ghanaian construction industry within the Accra metropolis participated in the study. In analysing the data for the study, Relative Importance Index (RII) method was used to determine the relative importance of each of the factors and impacts identified. The five-point scale ranged from 1(not important) to 5 (very important) was adopted and transformed to relative importance indices (RII) for each. The study identified the following in descending order as the 5 most important factors from a list of 14 , affecting the pre-project planning processes (feasibility studies) in the Ghanaian construction industry: (1)Stakeholder representation, (2) funding(resources for the study), (3)Time, (4)rewards and recognitions for team members, (5)project team leadership. Furthermore the study revealed the following as the 5 most important impact of the factors from a list of 10 affecting the pre-project planning processes in the Ghanaian construction industry in the descending order of : (1)project cost, (2)project completion time (3)excessive change order, (4)quality of work (5) demoralization of parties. The findings of the study also showed that in Ghana, relevant stakeholders are not well represented during the pre-project planning stage of the project. The study further shows that design professionals and the clients are the 1st and 2nd most well represented stakeholders in the pre-project planning process whereas external stakeholders are the least represented. Moreover, the study further showed that in Ghana the amount of resources committed to the pre-project planning process and the level of motivation given to project team members during the planning processes are mostly not adequate. From the study, it was concluded that the pre-project planning process in Ghana is affected by several factors identified above. These identified pre-project planning factors were found to impact the process in several areas including project cost, project completion time, excessive change orders, and quality of work, demoralization of parties, project profitability just to mention a few. Based on the findings of the study, some recommendations have been made to ensure effective and efficient pre-project planning process in the Ghanaian construction industry

Source: KNUST
Factors affecting procurement performance in public sectors in Ghana: A case of Kintampo Municipal Assembly.

This study is carried to ascertain factors affecting public procurement performance at the Kintampo Municipal Assembly. The study was purely qualitative; therefore there was sample size. Interviews were used as a data collective instrument. Five (5) respondents were used as key informants to the study. The data analysis was done by transcribing the responses on the interview guide into themes and meaning drawn from them. procurement performance is a major hindrance to both private and public sectors in organization growth. Poor procurement performance in the public and private sectors has been a problem due to unprofessional staff, traditional procedures and inability to embrace electronic procurement, poor coordination of activities, lack of quality assurance policies ad lack of proper regulations, lack of established procurement plans. The findings of the study also disclosed that lack of expertise, political interference, weak institutional structures, inability to implement, monitor policies and laws are the most significant factors affecting procurement performance in the public sectors in Ghana. The study therefore recommends that the assembly established a procurement department to managed by a qualified person, train staff regularly, provide guidelines for practitioners, create procurement websites to improve procurement system.

Source: KNUST
Factors Affecting Students’ Academic Performance in Visual Arts Education in Ghana: An Evidence from Dormaa Senior High School.

This study was conducted to examine factors affecting students' academic performance in Visual Arts Education in Ghana with evidence from Dormaa Senior High School in the Brong Ahafo Region. The study's objectives were: to identify factors that result in high students` academic performance of Visual Arts education in Dormaa Senior High School; to examine specific factors that underpin low academic performance of Visual Arts students in Dormaa Senior High School; and to propose strategies that can be put in place to enhance academic performance of Visual Arts students in Dormaa Senior High School. As a descriptive research under qualitative study, a sample size of forty (40) respondents were purposively and conveniently selected to help in eliciting responses for this study. The methods of data collection were focus group discussions and unstructured interview. The sources of data were primary and secondary. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach. The study's findings revealed that there are factors that affect academic performance of Visual Arts Students in Dormaa Senior High School. The study further revealed that for the past three years (2014-2016) Dormaa Senior High School has recorded low academic performance for its Visual Arts Students. Finally, useful insights gained from the qualitative analysis as well as the findings and conclusions could serve as practical evidence for school administrators interested in adopting strategies in enhancing academic performance of their students.

Source: KNUST
Factors affecting sustainable procurement systems in the construction industry: A study of construction units in Ejisu municipal assembly in the Ashanti region, Ghana

Sustainable procurement practices are important in every organization to achieve value for money and achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In spite of the fact that district assemblies in Ghana have substantial resources, they are not harnessed sustainably. This study sought to assess the factors militating against sustainable procurement delivery of the Ejisu Municipal Assembly. These are the objective of the study 1.To examine the sustainable procurement systems available in the Ejisu Municipal Assembly in Ashanti region 2 To identify the institutional structural factors affecting sustainable procurement practices in the Ejisu Municipal Assembly3.To analyse the resource capacity factors affecting sustainable procurement practices in the Ejisu Municipal Assembly 4. To examine the costs factors affecting sustainable procurement practices in the Ejisu Municipal Assembly. The study selected 90 respondents using the purposive sampling methods. The study also identified that the Ejisu Municipal Assembly have initiated measures to support the inclusion of sustainability into future project delivery plans. The study also identified that lack of top management supports, poor corporate strategy and inadequate incentives and motivations have significant relationship with sustainable procurement practices of the Ejisu Municipal Assembly. In addition, identified lack of expertise and training was significant with sustainable procurement practices. The study identified that unclear procurement laws and non-alignment of procurement practices with procurement laws has significant relationship with sustainable procurement practices of the Ejisu Municipal Assembly. This means that management of the Ejisu Municipal Assembly is not able to align sustainable procurement practices with the procurement laws because of lack of understanding of the laws. The study concluded that the Ejisu Municipal Assembly have implemented effective sustainable procurement practices in the delivery of projects. The study recommends that the Ejisu Municipal Assembly should receive support from management to improve their performance in sustainable procurement practices

Source: KNUST
Factors affecting post-implementation of donor funded projects in Ghana. A case of feed the future project in the northern region.

Poverty has uncontrollably affected large portion of population but has greatly ravaged on the rural population. The donor funded projects have laid down strategies to handle the challenges especially on rural population, but this has not been without drawbacks in execution of these strategies to curb the problem of poor living standards. The main concern and essential priority of the donor organisations is to advance the living standards among the people in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These organisations have put up determined fight against poverty by commencing various projects in the various fields such as education, health, agriculture, water and sanitation, and social welfare. The current study explored the factors affecting post-implementation of donor funded projects in Ghana. A Case of Feed the Future Project in the Northern Region. The constructs used were management structures, project financial systems and donor policies. The study targeted sixty (60) stakeholders. The instrument for the data collection was developed by the researcher, preceded by a pilot study. The pilot study was initially conducted in a similar community with a same project to ascertain its validity and the reliability. The data for the study was basically from primary source in that closed-ended questionnaire was designed and distributed to stakeholders. The study used Yamane (1967), sample size calculation to arrive at fifty-two (52) respondents constituting all stakeholders, with an alpha level of 5% and a confidence level of 95% to gather data for analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to test the data. The study found that project activities designed to meet capacity of local administrative systems greatly affect post implementation of donor funded project. Again, the study indicated that sound financial base from reliable source of funding significantly influence project financial system. More importantly, the study found that project design are made to ensure sustainable benefit is one of the crucial project donor design process. The study recommended that project implementers use their project management skills solve practical challenges to enhance the benefits to communities. Also, establishment of a tradition for holding National Stakeholders Forum at which the Minister gave account of the ministry’s performance and received feedback from employers, labour unions, professional associations, public, private, NGOs, government departments involved in the project.

Source: KNUST
Factors Affecting Project Cost Management of Large Commercial Building Projects in Ghana

It is not far-fetched that the building construction industry is inextricably intertwined with the competitive positioning of a nation. Unfortunately, however, project cost is affected by diverse factors that often have detrimental effect on the quality, duration and profitability of building construction projects if not efficiently managed. Meanwhile, at the heart of a successful and profitable building construction project is efficient cost, time and quality management. This research work, therefore, sought to analyze the cost management practices of large commercial building projects in Ghana and recommend holistic and efficient project cost management measures to ensure optimal quality, cost efficiency and profitability of building construction projects. Using the Purposive Sampling approach and administering of questionnaires, the research considered the two senior Project Managers and Quantity Surveyors, in addition to 1No. Construction Manager and 1No. Senior Engineer from 7No. construction firms. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Software and Excel Spreadsheet were used to analyze the survey data, qualified with frequencies, cross-tabulations and graphs. The relative importance index (RII) of project cost management practices and factors affecting project cost management were calculated and ranked. The study revealed that the building construction industry in Ghana is a complex interrelated system of several players with apt academic credentials, profound experience and youthful and exuberant workforce. Project cost management practices of large commercial building construction projects in Ghana are technically limited in scope and not coordinated in real time between and among the stakeholders involved. The major project cost management practices remain unit costing, cash flow forecasting, tender budgeting, elemental costing and planning, financial cost reporting, working budget adjustment, works programming and record keeping. The factors affecting the project cost estimates of large commercial building projects in Ghana emanates from weak internal structures than external factors; including underestimation of project cost, building material price fluctuations, ineffective project planning practices, and poor building design and changes. To rectify this menace, it is advised that building construction firms should adopt and apply the following project cost management strategies and modeling system in order to optimize their cost management efficiencies; identify critical cost centers along the project value chain, set cost performance targets, identify factors that affect project cost centers, assess cost implications on the entire project, diagnose results, recommend solutions and install an enterprise information system.

Source: KNUST
Factors affecting the adoption of E-Marketing among SMEs; Case study of selected SMEs in the Kumasi Metropolis, Ashanti Region.

Over the years, the internet has steadily become an extremely relevant marketing tool for businesses around the globe including SMEs. Recent surveys have focused on the adoption of E-Marketing in both developed and developing countries. This study was conducted to investigate the factors that affect the adoption of E-marketing among small and medium enterprises. Its main objectives were to identify the various factors affecting the decision by SMEs owners and managers to adopt the technology or not. In addition, to ascertain the level to which each factor influences their decisions to adopt the technology. Lastly, the study aimed to find out the extent to which SMEs have adopted e-marketing in their operations. Quantitative approach was used to determine the magnitude of each factor in influencing adoption of E-Marketing among SMEs. A qualitative approach was useful to provide the researcher with perspective. The findings of this study do provide a basic support for the inadequate activity of SMEs with concern to E-Marketing. The study can therefore conclude that the main factors inhibiting the adoption of electronic marketing among SMEs in Kumasi are: technological incompatibility with target markets; lack of knowledge; stakeholder‟s unreadiness; technology disorientation as well as perception. These findings of the study indeed concur with various studies that argue that the non-adoption of e-marketing is multi-dimensional in its causality and it‟s largely dependent on the business sector under investigation.

Source: KNUST
Factors affecting the adoption of e-marketing among smes; case study of selected smes in the Kumasi metropolis, Ashanti Region

Over the years, the internet has steadily become an extremely relevant marketing tool for businesses around the globe including SMEs. Recent surveys have focused on the adoption of E-Marketing in both developed and developing countries. This study was conducted to investigate the factors that affect the adoption of E-marketing among small and medium enterprises. Its main objectives were to identify the various factors affecting the decision by SMEs owners and managers to adopt the technology or not. In addition, to ascertain the level to which each factor influences their decisions to adopt the technology. Lastly, the study aimed to find out the extent to which SMEs have adopted e marketing in their operations. Quantitative approach was used to determine the magnitude of each factor in influencing adoption of E-Marketing among SMEs. A qualitative approach was useful to provide the researcher with perspective. The findings of this study do provide a basic support for the inadequate activity of SMEs with concern to E Marketing. The study can therefore conclude that the main factors inhibiting the adoption of electronic marketing among SMEs in Kumasi are: technological incompatibility with target markets; lack of knowledge; stakeholder‟s unreadiness; technology disorientation as well as perception. These findings of the study indeed concur with various studies that argue that the non-adoption of e-marketing is multi-dimensional in its causality and it‟s largely dependent on the business sector under investigation

Source: KNUST