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1 – 10 of over 6000Daniel Dramani Kipo-Sunyehzi, Abdul-Fatawu Abubakari and John-Paul Safunu Banchani
This study aims to focus on public policy concerning the implementation of public procurement policies in Nigeria and Ghana toward achieving value for money in the procurement of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to focus on public policy concerning the implementation of public procurement policies in Nigeria and Ghana toward achieving value for money in the procurement of goods, services and works. It specifically analyzes some major administrative challenges Nigeria and Ghana are faced with in the administration/implementation of public procurement policies toward achieving value for money. It looks at the relationship between the state (regulatory authorities) and substate (procurement entities) in the public sectors of Nigeria and Ghana.
Design/methodology/approach
A comparative case study approach is adopted, where the two countries are compared in terms of achieving value for money. Data was collected from multiple sources, including in-depth interviews. The use of official documents and direct observations at the procurement regulatory authorities and entities’ premises.
Findings
This study found Nigeria often used the four Es – economy, efficiency, effectiveness and equity while Ghana mainly used the traditional five rights (right quantity, right quality, right price, right place and right time) as their criteria for ensuring value for money. The major administrative challenges found include corruption, low capacity of procurement personnel and poor knowledge of the procurement laws.
Social implications
It recommends effective collaboration between government and civil society groups in the fight against corruption in procurement-related activities, with the implication that there is a need for periodic training for public procurement officials.
Originality/value
It adds to the field of public procurement in terms of value for money in the procurement of goods, services and works in developing countries context.
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In terms of the concept of broken home as a juvenile delinquency risk factor, whilst Nigeria and Ghana are culturally different from western nations (Gyekye, 1996; Hofstede, 1980;…
Abstract
Purpose
In terms of the concept of broken home as a juvenile delinquency risk factor, whilst Nigeria and Ghana are culturally different from western nations (Gyekye, 1996; Hofstede, 1980; Smith, 2004), parental death (PDE) and parental divorce (PDI) have been previously taken-for-granted as one factor, that is ‘broken home’. This paper aims to deconstruct the singular model of ‘broken home’ and propose a binary model – the parental death and parental divorce hypotheses, with unique variables inherent in Nigerian/Ghanaian context.
Methodology/approach
It principally deploys the application of Goffman’s (1967) theory of stigma, anthropological insights on burial rites and other social facts (Gyekye, 1996; Mazzucato et al., 2006; Smith, 2004) to tease out diversity and complexity of lives across cultures, which specifically represent a binary model of broken home in Nigeria/Ghana. It slightly appraises post-colonial insights on decolonization (Agozino, 2003; Said, 1994) to interrogate both marginalized and mainstream literature.
Findings
Thus far, analyses have challenged the homogenization of the concept broken home in existing literature. Qualitatively unlike in the ‘West’, analyses have identified the varying meanings/consequences of parental divorce and parental death in Nigeria/Ghana.
Originality/value
Unlike existing data, this paper has contrasted the differential impacts of parental death and parental divorce with more refined variables (e.g. the sociocultural penalties of divorce such as stigma in terms of parental divorce and other social facts such as burial ceremonies, kinship nurturing, in relation to parental death), which helped to fill in the missing gap in comparative criminology literature.
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Mary S. Mangai and Michiel S. De Vries
While there is an urgent need for clean water in Ghana and Nigeria, governments lack the financial means to do much to address this need. This does not mean that improving access…
Abstract
Purpose
While there is an urgent need for clean water in Ghana and Nigeria, governments lack the financial means to do much to address this need. This does not mean that improving access to clean water is impossible. On the contrary, this paper argued that engaging citizens through co-production, as is already being done in developed countries in the fields of care-giving, waste management, healthcare and community policing, could provide a successful strategy. The purpose of this paper is to examine how public water facilities are being managed to improve and sustain access to clean water for domestic use in rural areas in Ghana and Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey interview with households and in-depth interviews with water professionals were conducted in Ghana and Nigeria to help the authors understand the practicalities of the co-production of clean water and how this is improving and maintaining access to clean water sources. The paper draws on a philosophical framework of “deep” citizen engagement to describe the merits of co-production and how it works in practice in developing countries.
Findings
Based on the interviews with officials and surveys among the population of rural areas in the two countries studied, the authors found that the two countries vary significantly in their approach to water management decisions and the extent to which citizens are involved. Ghana’s approach seems much more successful than Nigeria when it comes to maintaining boreholes for water supply with the help of the population. In Nigeria, three-quarters of the public water facilities are non-functional, while in Ghana, community involvement in maintaining public water facilities has resulted in the sustained use of boreholes and eliminated the lack of access to clean water in many communities.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the practical understanding of co-production in developing countries and the potential of such co-production in improving clean water access. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous scientific research has studied how co-production can improve and sustain access specifically to clean water sources in developing countries, and this paper aimed to fill this gap.
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Bright Owusu Asante, Jonas Osei-Adu, Kingsley Osei, Stella Ama Ennin, Beatrice Aighewi and Monica Opoku
This paper aims to investigate how awareness influences the adoption of positive selection (PS) technology among smallholder yam farmers in West Africa. PS has the potential of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how awareness influences the adoption of positive selection (PS) technology among smallholder yam farmers in West Africa. PS has the potential of increasing yield and reducing disease incidence and severity in yam production.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper applies the average treatment effect (ATE) methodology to estimate the rates of awareness and adoption of the PS technology and associated factors using data from 678 smallholder seed yam farmers in Ghana and Nigeria.
Findings
The results indicate that the actual adoption rates of PS technology are 58 and 55%, while the potential adoption rates are estimated at 89.5 and 79.3% for Ghana and Nigeria, respectively, if the PS technology was fully disseminated. This leads to adoption gaps of 31.7 and 24.8%, respectively, for Ghana and Nigeria stemming from incomplete awareness of the PS among the population of yam growing farmers. The PS adoption is high among the educated young farmers who are members of farmer based organizations and participate in demonstrations.
Practical implications
Promotional efforts for enhancing awareness and adoption of PS should target educated youth willing to participate in field demonstrations and should focus on scaling up of PS technology to ensure quality farmer saved seed yams and enhance yam productivity in West Africa.
Originality/value
The introduction of PS in seed yam production is quite recent also its introduction to seed yam farmers in West Africa. Subsequently, a better understanding of what the adoption status would be should everyone in the population of yam farmers are aware of PS is vital for policy, research and development.
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Abdulrazaq Olayinka Oniye, Shuaib Abolakale Muhammed, Khadijat Mogaji-Yusuf, Christiana Modupe Sunmonu-David and Abena Kyeraa Dapaah
Sexual intimacy is one of the functions of marriage and married couples especially in Africa. Many marriages and by extension families in Nigeria and Ghana are unstable because of…
Abstract
Sexual intimacy is one of the functions of marriage and married couples especially in Africa. Many marriages and by extension families in Nigeria and Ghana are unstable because of misunderstanding around intimacy style preference. The study investigated sexual intimacy style preference of married adults in West Africa, using a case study of Nigeria and Ghana. The research design adopted was a descriptive survey. A total sample of 324 respondents was sampled in the study using purposive sampling and random sampling techniques. A questionnaire title preferred sexual style inventory was used to gather data for the study. The instrument was validated by expert in the department of counseling education and its reliability was established using test re-test and a coefficient of 0.74 was derived. The result of the study revealed that most preferred sexual intimacy styles of married adult in Nigeria were traditional missionary style, doggy style and the cow girl/woman on top style. Also, the study revealed that married adults in Ghana preferred traditional missionary, cow girl, and doggy style. The study also revealed that there was a significant difference in the sexual intimacy style preference of married adults in Nigeria and Ghana. Based on the findings it is recommended that sociologists and marriage-family counselors should seek to develop awareness about most preferred intimacy styles among married and would be married people in Africa as a way of increasing marital stability and societal wellbeing in the continent.
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Alhassan Abdul-Wakeel Karakara and Evans Osabuohien
This study aims to investigate how ICT adoption enhances the innovativeness of informal firms in West Africa, using the cases of Ghana and Nigeria.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate how ICT adoption enhances the innovativeness of informal firms in West Africa, using the cases of Ghana and Nigeria.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used the World Bank Enterprise Survey data 2014 for Ghana and Nigeria with binary logistic regression analysis to achieve this. Four different innovations are modelled. They include: first, whether a firm has innovated based on producing a new product or significantly improved product; second, whether a firm has innovated in its methods of production or services; third, whether a firm has innovated in terms of its organisational structure; and fourth, whether a firm has introduced a new and improved marketing method.
Findings
The results show that the use of email, cellphone and website has a positive impact on the four types of innovations modelled. However, these effects varied markedly between Ghana and Nigeria. Firms’ spending on research and development (R&D), firm giving its employees the chance to develop their ideas and when firm competes with others; all positively impact the four types of innovations. Thus, the study recommends that policies should be geared towards making firms have more access to ICTs to enable them to be more innovative to serve clients and the economy.
Originality/value
This study differs by concentrating on how the adoption of ICTs could help firms to introduce innovations into their companies in two West African countries, namely, Ghana and Nigeria. Thus, it complements literature on informal firms’ innovation efforts in West Africa.
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Kwesi Amponsah-Tawiah, Kwasi Dartey-Baah and Kobena Osam
This paper aims to examine the potential impact of the presence of oil resource on the Ghanaian society. Specifically, the paper investigates the relationship between key…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the potential impact of the presence of oil resource on the Ghanaian society. Specifically, the paper investigates the relationship between key stakeholders in the oil sector, how stakeholder interactions create the potential for collision and advances measures aimed at turning possible collision into cooperation.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a literature review-based approach, drawing on existing literature in a number of areas including corporate social responsibility (CSR), oil and gas industry in Ghana and Nigeria as well as communication.
Findings
The paper advances that expectations of stakeholders as regards oil being a panacea to all their problems must be managed to avoid possible collision. Additionally, Ghana’s oil industry must identify and engage all stakeholders in planning suitable and sustainable CSR programmes for economic development, thus fostering a friendly environment for oil companies. Transparency and accountability are also needed to promote cooperation rather than collision among stakeholders in Ghana’s oil industry.
Originality/value
This paper raises and brings to the fore critical issues that can lead to potential collisions in the oil and gas industry in Ghana if not well-managed, and thus an innovative work in that regard.
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Thomas Antwi Bosiakoh and Vera Williams Tetteh
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of female immigrant entrepreneurs generally and more specifically Nigerian women entrepreneurs in Ghana, West Africa.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of female immigrant entrepreneurs generally and more specifically Nigerian women entrepreneurs in Ghana, West Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a qualitative research that draws on a broad-based research on Nigerian men and women immigrants’ entrepreneurship in Ghana. Face-to-face interviews with six women in the study are analysed here to provide insights into their motivations for and embeddedness of their entrepreneurship activities in Ghana.
Findings
The women’s entrepreneurship activities lend themselves to the mixed embeddedness argument in two ways: first is their ethnic embeddedness, and second their embeddedness in informality and policy framework. Also, all the women work in very trying circumstances and thus display what can be described as a “daring entrepreneurship” drive.
Practical implications
This paper is positioned at the intersection of ethnic embeddedness, informality and daring entrepreneurial drive by migrant women.
Originality/value
The paper provides an unprecedented and a refreshing account on the entrepreneurship and operational pathways of women in the margin of the global economy.
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This study aims to examine the effect of corporate governance on firms' dividend payout policy in sub‐Saharan Africa. The study also aims to examine how dividend payout influences…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the effect of corporate governance on firms' dividend payout policy in sub‐Saharan Africa. The study also aims to examine how dividend payout influences corporate governance.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample made up 27 Ghanaian firms, 177 Nigerian firms, 51 Kenyan firms, and 270 South African firms covering the period 1997‐2006, the paper employs a simultaneous panel regression model in its estimation.
Findings
The results show that board composition and board size exhibit significantly positive relationship with dividend payout in Kenya and Ghana, respectively. Institutional ownership positively influences dividend payout among South African and Kenyan firms. In the case of Nigeria, all the corporate governance measures show significantly negative effects on dividend payout. The findings clearly suggest that, with respect to South Africa, Kenya and Ghana, good corporate governance structures lead to high‐dividend payout, probably due to easy access to and low cost of external finance. However, in Nigeria, improving the governance structures may be associated with high‐earnings retention or low‐dividend payment in order to reduce cost of external finance. We found in the case of Ghana that, dividend payout positively affects board composition, suggesting that Ghanaian firms with high‐payout tend to adopt good corporate governance structures in order to ensure protection of shareholder interest. The findings of this study certainly have important policy implications.
Originality/value
This present study contributes to the corporate governance literature by looking at the importance of corporate governance in influencing firms' dividend behaviour in selected African countries.
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