ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Valorising University Education in Ghana

There has been a neoliberal re-ordering of the political intent behind education in Ghana. Prior to the said re-ordering, education was a means by which the government facilitated the citizen’s acquisition of the social capital required to enable the individual to contribute to the positive development of the state. The state intervened to create a common sense of nationhood and destiny among the citizenry in the quest for national reconstruction. However, the neoliberal “commodification” of education—in the form of a philosophical readjustment of the need for education, from being a “right” to a “privilege”—and its attendant shifting of the cost onto the citizen, have led to the creation of segregation based on income. The poor have thus been permanently locked out of education as a means of upward social mobility. The result of this is socio economic disharmony, with the educational system as a political filter which separates those who can afford education and those who cannot. This has negative implications for the process of democratic deepening: the educationally empowered will lord it over the educationally disempowered. Stretched to its logical conclusion, the state, even though liberal, becomes an oppressive democratic state, with structurally limited options for the poor.

Source: UG
Valorization of Algal Biomass to Biofuel: A Review

Concerns about sustainable energy sources arise due to the non-renewable nature of petroleum. Escalating demand for fossil fuels and price inflation negatively impact the energy security and economy of a country. The generation and usage of biofuel could be suggested as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Several studies have investigated the potential of using edible crops for biofuel production. However, the usage of algae as suitable feedstock is currently being promoted due to its ability to withstand adverse environmental conditions, capacity to generate more oil per area, and potential to mitigate energy crises and climate change with no detrimental impact on the environment and food supply. Furthermore, the biorefinery approach in algae based biofuel production controls the economy of algal cultivation. Hence, this article critically reviews different cultivation systems of algae with critical parameters including harvesting methods, intended algae-based biofuels with relevant processing techniques, other applications of valorized algal biomass, merits and demerits, and limitations and challenges in algae-based biofuel production.

Source: UG
Valorization of Citrus Reticulata Peels for Flavonoids and Antioxidant Enhancement by Solid-State Fermentation Using Aspergillus niger CGMCC 3.6189

The bioactive components and bioactivities of citrus peel can be enhanced with microbial fermentation. Accordingly, this study investigated the ability of Aspergillus niger CGMCC3.6189 to accumulate flavonoids in Citrus reticulata peel powder (CRPP) by solid-state fermentation (SSF). Under the optimal SSF conditions including 80% moisture, 30 ◦C, pH 4.0, 4 × 107 spores/g d.w. CRPP, and 192 h, the total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), and 2,20 -azinobis- (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) and 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) scavenging activities of fermented CRPP significantly increased by 70.0, 26.8, 64.9, and 71.6%, re spectively. HPLC analysis showed that after fermentation, the contents of hesperidin, nobiletin, and tangeretin were significantly increased from 19.36, 6.31, and 2.91 mg/g to 28.23, 7.78, and 3.49 mg/g, respectively, while the contents of ferulic acid and narirutin were decreased under the optimal fermentation conditions. Fermentation time is one of the most important factors that affect the accumulation of flavonoids and antioxidant activity; however, extended fermentation time increased the darkness of CRPP color. Therefore, our study provides a feasible and effective SSF method to increase the bioactive components and the antioxidant activity of CRPP that may be used in food, nutraceutical, and medicinal industries.

Source: UG
Value and Service Quality Assessment of the National Health Insurance Scheme in Ghana: Evidence from Ashiedu Keteke District

Background: Ghana introduced the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2003 to provide financial access to health care for all residents. Objectives: This article analyzed claims reimbursement data of the NHIS to assess the value of the benefit package to the insured and responsiveness of the service to the financial needs of health services providers. Methods: Medical claims data reported between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2014, were retrieved from the database of Ashiedu Keteke District Office of the National Health Insurance Authority. The incurred claims ratio, promptness of claims settlements, and claims adjustment rate were analyzed over the 5-year period. Results: In all, 644,663 medical claims with a cost of Ghana cedi (GHS) 11.8 million (US $3.1 million) were reported over the study period. The ratio of claims cost to contributions paid increased from 4.3 to 7.2 over the 2011-2013 period, and dropped to 5.0 in 2014. The proportion of claims settled beyond 90 days also increased from 26% to 100% between 2011 and 2014. Generally, the amount of claims adjusted was low; however, it increased consistently from 1% to about 4% over the 2011-2014 period. The reasons for claims adjustments included provision of services to ineligible members, overbilling of services, and misapplication of diagnosis related groups. Conclusions: There is increased value of the NHIS benefit package to subscribers; however, the scheme's responsiveness to the financial needs of health services providers is low. This calls for a review of the NHIS policy to improve financial viability and service quality. © 2016 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR).

Source: UG
Value Chain Analysis of the Broiler Industry in the Southern Sector of Ghana

The livestock subsector especially broiler production plays a significant role in the livelihood and food security in Ghana. Several researchers in developing nations have employed value chain methodologies to investigate the linkages and the interactions of the various actors in the poultry sector. However, none of these studies comprehensively captured each actor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as well as the governance structure and profitability of the broiler industry. This paper fills this gap by analyzing the governance structure, value addition, determinants of profitability and prospect of the broiler industry using 290 respondents (180 broiler producers, 65 distributors and 45 retailers) from the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Bono Regions of Ghana. The study adopted the scoring analytical technique, net farm income (NFI), the modified Cobb-Douglas function and the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) matrix for the analyses. The results revealed producers as the key governors with the highest value addition and return on investment. Distributors and processors on the other hand form informal cartels to monopolize their activities to increase bargaining power. Whilst credit access, education, business training, age and feed type influenced profitability, the broiler industry is threatened by high importation of frozen chicken, high taxes, lack of capital access and high cost of operation. The study recommends that the government should pursue measures to minimize the cost of operations through input-tax exemptions and reduce the importation of chicken products. Stakeholders should invest in input supply, processing technologies and transportation facilities to boost local production for profit gains.

Source: UG
“The value chain and e-business in exporting: Case studies from Ghana's non-traditional export (NTE) sector” Telematics and Informatics

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the possibilities and challenges facing the application of e-business in the Ghanaian exporting sector. The paper also ascertains, from a value chain perspective, the extent of e-business usages within two export organizations in Ghana’s Non-traditional Export (NTE) sector. The two export firms profiled were from the private and governmental/public sectors of Ghana’s NTE sector. Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopted a case study approach. This approach was chosen in view of its ability to contribute to deep and detailed knowledge, especially in areas that are characterized by rapid changes. It was also chosen because it is useful for analysing contemporary events. The primary source of data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with senior management personnel in the firms we studied. The data obtained was analysed thematically. Findings: Across the various value chain activities, the private sector firm showed deeper e-business use concentration than the governmental export organization. More importantly, across the two cases, the value chain activities of export organizations in developing economies that could be most strategically leveraged using e-business are customer service, sales and marketing, operations, logistics and procurement, in that order. Originality/value: The study is one of a few studies that aim to build on the existing value chain theories in relation to e-business. This study focused on an emerging economy context. Practical implications: Developing economy export firms looking to develop capabilities and better leverage their e-resources to build competitive advantage should focus on building their customer service and marketing competencies first.

Source: UG
Value co-creation and employee service behaviours: The moderating role of trust in employee - hotel relationship

Value co-creation (VC) is generally considered to have mutually beneficial implications for all actors involved. Nonetheless, emerging evidence on value co-destruction and its consequences on the wellbeing of co-creating actors implies that narrowing down on specific fallouts of this process is needed for managerial interventions. This paper contributes to the value-co-creation literature by exploring the relationship between customer participation in VC on some difficult-to-detect employee service behaviors: workaholism and fear-based silence. The extent to which employee trust (TRS) in employee-hotel relationship moderates these relations is assessed. While the findings from 422 frontline employee-customer data within luxury hotels in Ghana support a negative effect of VC on fear-based silence and workaholism, TRS buffered these effects. We recommend that VC be in service failure and recovery should be approached with tact, compassion, and forgiveness.

Source: UG
Value co-creation effects on transaction cost, relational capital, and loyalty of hair salon customers: Results and implications of a Ghanaian study

This study aimed to examine customer relational capital, transaction cost, and loyalty with value co-creation in the Ghanaian hair-dressing business sector . Participants were 455 female hair-dressing customers (mean age = 2 .56 years, SD = 1 .07 years, age range 22 to 68) . Respondents completed existing measures of value co-creation, relational capital, transaction cost, and customer loyalty . The data was analysed by performing structural equation modelling using SmartPLS . The findings show that value co-creation enhances customer relational capital, transaction cost, and loyalty . The findings further show that relational capital significantly influences loyalty, while transaction cost did not . The findings of this study imply that value co-creation is of competitive advantage, influencing relational capital and customer loyalty . Relational capital with customer transaction cost is important to customer-oriented value co-creation in the hair-dressing industry

Source: UG
The Value of Support Group Participation in Influencing Adherence to Antiretroviral Treatment among People Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)

Advances in antiretroviral therapy for both Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) treatment and prevention have increased interest in adherence to HIV treatment. This is because the individual patient and public health benefits of antiretroviral treatment (ART) greatly depend on the extent to which people living with HIV (PLHIV) adhere to the prescribed daily dosing regimens. Studies have shown that nonadherence to ART increases drug resistance, morbidity and person-to-person HIV transmission. Public health experts are trying different innovations to enhance ART adhe rence, including promoting support groups of PLHIV. The purpose of this study was to determine the value of support group participation in enhancing ART adherence. The study used a cross-sec tional design to compare ART adherence among PLHIV who participate in support group activities and those who do not. Respondents were adults who were initiated on ART between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012. Multistage probability sampling was used to select study sites and respondents. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire from 1676 respondents between February and May 2014. Data was analyzed using STATA. Univariate analysis was carried out to generate descriptive statistics, while Chi-square tests were used to examine if there was an association between participation in support group activities and antiretroviral treatment adhe rence. ART adherence was self-reported by 745/788 (95%) and 814/888 (92%) respondents who had ever and had never participated in support group activities respectively. Among respondents who reported nonadherence to ART, 74/117 (8%) had never participated in support group activi ties compared to just 43/117 (5%) who participated in support group activities. These findings suggest that PLHIV who participate in support group activities are more likely to adhere to ART than those who do not participate. This implies that there is value in participating in support groups by PLHIV in terms of ART adherence.

Source: UG
A value proposition: Resource recovery from faecal sludge - Can it be the driver for improved sanitation?

There is currently a lack of access to affordable sanitation in urban areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. This study evaluated the potential for resource recovery from innovative faecal sludge treatment processes to generate a profit that could help sustain the sanitation service chain. A total of 242 interviews were conducted in Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; and Kampala, Uganda to compare markets in different cultural and regional contexts. Products identified to have potential market value include dry sludge as a fuel for combustion, biogas from anaerobic digestion, protein derived from sludge processing as animal feed, sludge as a component in building materials, and sludge as a soil conditioner. The market demand and potential revenue varied from city to city based on factors such as sludge characteristics, existing markets, local and regional industrial sectors, subsidies, and locally available materials. Use as a soil conditioner, which has been the most common end use of treated sludge, was not as profitable as other end uses. These findings should help policy and decision makers of sanitation service provision to design financially viable management systems based on resource recovery options. © 2014 The Authors.

Source: UG
Value-For-Money Audit for Accountability and Performance Management in Local Government in Ghana

Public sector organizations, including local government (LG) entities, continue to resort to value for money (VFM) audit to enhance performance and accountability. Based on the analysis of the consolidated reports on the annual performance-based Functional Organizational Assessment Tool (FOAT)—VFM audit—in Ghana to determine the efficacy of VFM on performance, this article argues that VFM audits constitute a significant public management tool that could enhance LG performance. However, the FOAT reports, like most VFM audits, only provide quantitative evidence, which fails to capture the qualitative or other relevant explanatory factors behind the recorded performance improvement.

Source: UG
Values of Children among Sub-Saharan African Women: The Case of Ghanaian Women

This paper examines whether previously suggested reasons for having children: economic, social and psychological values of child can be identified among a group of sub-Sahara women, and the extent to which a spiritual value of child can be identified on the basis of African's belief in ancestors and its influence on their daily lives. Two groups of Ghanaian mothers—270 women (mean age = 42.14 years) with adolescent-aged child and 264 mothers (mean age =31.41 years) with a young child—participated in the study. Exploratory factor analyses found mixed support for the existence of social and psychological values of child. Economic values of child could not be identified. However, spiritual values of child came out as a clear factor, and accounted for about 10% of the explained variance, albeit the explained valiance was less than that from social and psychological values of child. The implications of these for family planning in sub-Sahara Africa and for fighting HIV/AIDS are discussed. © 2008 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Source: UG
A Vanished Dynasty Ashanti

This book claims to be only a brief, concise, and consecutive narrative of the traditional history of Ashanti, blended with known facts. With regard to the latter, the book is but a compilation of excerpts from the records of former authors. I know of no work, however, that deals exclusively with Ashanti, and it has been my endeavour to reproduce these facts in a convenient and epitomized form. Another aim of these pages is to save the more important historical traditions of the country from inevitable oblivion. The unborn generations of Ashanti’s will indubitably suffer from impaired memories consequent on the spread of education. A lack of reverence for and love of past deeds is already noticeable among the school-children of the present day, and unless the ancient national traditions are to be entirely lost, they should be set forth in print. These reasons ", just serve as an excuse for the present publication. Criticisms of past events have been purposely avoided, for I hold the opinion that no useful purpose would now be served by reopening controversy on irreparable acts. The "manners and customs" of the Ashanti’s have received scant attention in these pages, as the wealth of the subject-matter demands separate treatment.

Source: UG
Variabilities in Rainfall Onset, Cessation and Length of Rainy Season for the Various Agro-Ecological Zones of Ghana

This paper examines the onset and cessation dates of the rainy season over Ghana using rain gauge data from the Ghana Meteorological Agency (GMet) over the period of 1970–2012. The onset and cessation dates were determined from cumulative curves using the number of rainy days and rainfall amount. In addition, the inter-annual variability of the onset and cessation dates for each climatic zone was assessed using wavelet analysis. A clear distinction between the rainfall characteristics and the length of the rainy season in the various climatic zones is discussed. The forest and coastal zones in the south had their rainfall onset from the second and third dekads of March. The onset dates of the transition zone were from the second dekad of March to the third dekad of April. Late onset, which starts from the second dekad of April to the first dekad of May, was associated with the savannah zone. The rainfall cessation dates in the forest zone were in the third dekad of October to the first dekad of November, and the length of the rainy season was within 225–240 days. The cessation dates of the coastal zone were within the second and third dekad of October, and the length of rainy season was within 210–220 days. Furthermore, the transition zone had cessation dates in the second to third dekad of October, and the length Climate 2015, 3 417 of the rainy season was within 170–225 days. Lastly, the savannah zone had cessation dates within the third dekad of September to the first dekad of October, and the length of rainy season was within 140–180 days. The bias in the rainfall onset, cessation and length of the rainy season was less than 10 days across the entire country, and the root mean square error (RMSE) was in the range of 5–25 days. These findings demonstrate that the onset derived from the cumulative rainfall amount and the rainy days are in consistent agreement. The wavelet power spectrum and its significant peaks showed evidence of variability in the rainfall onset and cessation dates across the country. The coastal and forest zones showed 2–8-and 2–4-year band variability in the onsets and cessations, whereas the onset and cessation variability of the transition and savannah zones were within 2–4 and 4–8 years. This result has adverse effects on rain-fed agricultural practices, disease control, water resource management, socioeconomic activities and food security in Ghana.

Source: UG
Variability of Baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) fruits' physical characteristics and nutrient content in the West African Sahel

The present study was carried out to evaluate variability in fruit characteristics and nutritional quality of Baobab fruits with the aim of providing the background to select trees bearing fruit with desirable characteristics for further utilisation. Vitamin C, total sugar and ash contents were assessed in 178 Baobab fruit samples from 11 sites in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Furthermore the following tree and fruit physical characteristics were recorded: tree height, bark colour, fruit size, pulp weight, seed weight, seed size and pulp colour. The content (mean ± SD) of vitamin C was 4. 78 ± 1. 02 g kg -1, sugar 514 ± 72 g kg -1 and fruit weight 293 ± 96 g. There was a significant correlation between annual precipitation of the tree population site and vitamin C content but not with sugar content. For sugar, there were significant positive correlations with latitude and longitude. Negative correlations were found between fruit size and both longitude and latitude with smaller fruits generally being found to the north/east. No relation was found between pulp or bark colour and the sugar or vitamin C content. The contents of protein, lipid, carbohydrates, ash and moisture in the seeds ranged from 156 to 159, 143 to 150, 641 to 652, 44 to 49 and 50 to 55. 7 g kg -1 respectively. The variation for vitamin C and sugar found within populations is a first indication that valuable gains could be made by selection of superior trees. © 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Source: UG