Do company directors underestimate the adoption of corporate governance provisions?

This paper examines whether company directors underestimate the adoption of corporate governance provisions within Ghanaian listed firms. Using a survey approach, the respondents, who were company executives and non-executive directors with knowledge of the Ghanaian Code and its provisions, regard the code as a benchmark for good corporate governance practices within Ghanaian listed firms. They also report some improvement in the standard of corporate governance in their companies since the introduction of the Code. Many of the company directors indicated their preparedness to comply with further corporate governance requirements, such as the adoption of a formal nomination committee something not been currently included in the Ghanaian Code. However, the directors noted that they receive inadequate support from the regulatory and institutional bodies for the implementation of the Ghanaian Code provisions. Many of the directors also supported the review of the Ghanaian Code by an independent committee. With regard to the adoption of the Ghanaian Code and its influence on firm performance, the respondents indicated that the adoption of the specific governance provisions in the area of chief executive officer (CEO)/chairman roles separation, having a balance of executive and non-executive directors on the board, the establishment of audit and remuneration committees, and the full adoption of the Ghanaian Code provisions were all influential in determining firm performance. They, however, did not support the adoption of the board size provision as influential to firm performance. This raises questions about the usefulness of the range of board size as recommended by the Ghanaian Code

The Performance Consequences of Board Structure Changes:Evidence from Ghana

This paper analyses the performance consequences of board structure changes in Ghana for the study period 2000 to 2009. In 2003, the Ghanaian listed firms adopted the Ghanaian Corporate Governance Code on comply or explain basis but no study to date has analysed the pre-2003 and post-2003 board structure changes impact on firm performance in the Ghanaian environment. We predict that board structure changes prompted by the introduction of the Ghanaian Code in 2003 should lead to better firm performance. Using a panel regression model, our results show that duality decreases firm performance pre-2003, but those firms that separate the two posts in line with the recommendations of the Ghanaian Code did not perform better than those that combined the two post-2003. While we find no relationship between board committees and firm performance pre-2003, the relationship switched to positive and statistically significant post-2003. The most consistent result we find concerns board size. However, the non-executive director representation on the board appears to have no impact on firm performance. These results show that not all board structure recommendations introduced by the Ghanaian Code are effective in achieving superior performance in Ghana.</jats:p

An empirical investigation of the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance: evidence from Ghana.

This thesis investigates the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance prompted by the Ghanaian Code introduced in 2003. Using a sample of the Ghanaian listed firms from 2000-2009 and the directors of these same firms, the thesis attempts to achieve four specific objectives. The first objective is to measure the degree of compliance with the Ghanaian Code provisions from the Ghanaian listed firms annual reports during the whole, pre 2003 and post 2003 introduction of the code. The second objective is to empirically investigate the relationship between the degree of compliance with the Ghanaian Code and firm performance. The third objective is to empirically evaluate the perceptions of the directors of the Ghanaian listed firms on the adoption of the Ghanaian Code and its benefit to their firms performance. The final objective is to critically examine whether the use of multiple governance data has the potential to affect the research on governance-performance relationship findings. Given the multiple governance data from the Ghanaian listed firms annual reports and the directors responses, the results based on the degree of compliance with the Ghanaian Code suggest a statistically significant improvement from pre 2003 period to post 2003 period. This evidence is supported by the directors responses who noted that the standard of corporate governance has improved in their firms after the introduction of the Ghanaian Code. Also, the regression results based on the annual report data suggest that there is a statistically significant and positive relationship between the Ghanaian corporate governance index (GCGI) and profitability across Ghanaian listed firms, evidence supported by the directors responses who noted that the full adoption of the Ghanaian Code is beneficial to their firms performance. By contrast, the regression results based on the CEO duality, board size, proportion of non-executive directors, audit and remuneration committees suggest either statistically significant or no relationship between each of the five mechanisms and firm performance. These results are not supported in most cases by the directors responses where they showed support for the adoption of these mechanisms except board size as beneficial to their firms performance. Overall, the empirical analysis suggests a consensus between the regression results and the directors opinions on the full adoption of the Ghanaian Code rather than the selective adoption of its specific provisions where there is disagreement. These results raise questions about the effectiveness of the selective adoption of a particular code provision to improve firm performance

TOWARDS A CLASSIFICATION OF FAMILY-OWNED CONSTRUCTION FIRMS IN GHANA

The Ghanaian construction industry predominated by family-owned construction firms has established its dominant impact on economic development, albeit unstructured. This literature review is to dissect extant literature bringing out the uniqueness of the sector and attempt a classification for family-owned construction firms in Ghana. Anchored in a value-free axiological tradition in which the classification criteria of family-owned construction firms can be obtained by objective means set out in the framework, this study was undertaken by an extensive literature review from journals databases, textbooks, and relevant reports and citations. The review began with searches using “AND” and “OR” operators to search abstracts, titles, and a keyword with no restriction placed on the article's date of publication. Content analysis was done of the articles and with lots of information on family-owned businesses, very few on family-owned construction firms. Existing frameworks on the classification of family-owned businesses formed the basis of this framework. The key findings indicate that small and medium-sized family firms predominate the construction industry. The physiognomies of family-owned construction firms also contribute to their proliferation and overarching importance within the sector. The novelty of this study is that it merges information from the general business and construction industry and carves criteria for which family-owned construction firms can be identified and classified. For academia, the paper contributes to the stream of knowledge on what constitutes family-owned construction firms whilst exposing the lack of research in this constituency. It also serves as the foundation upon which future research can be conducted in the field of family-owned construction firms. For practitioners and policymakers, the paper offers insights into how to identify family-owned construction firms to be able to distinguish them for targeted support to grow the economy. Future research should be targeted at examining the growth and sustainability of family-owned construction firms. Article visualizations

An Evaluation of Teaching – Learning of Drawing at School of Applied Arts, Takoradi Polytechnic

Drawing is described as the bases of all art work when an art idea is conceived. It can only materialize into concrete form when it has gone through a process of designing which basically involves drawing. The ability of an artist to draw is very paramount in the art profession. The bases for selecting students to pursue an art programme is their ability to pass the requisite examination which includes drawing but still this research would show that standard of drawing among some students in Takoradi Polytechnic is very low. Descriptive research method based on qualitative research approach was adopted. This method was used to describe research methodology, through results discussion and findings. This paper examines the problem of poor drawing standards in an attempt to find solutions. The paper would provide insight into the problems which include poor foundation of students drawing abilities, inadequate facilities for teaching drawing in the polytechnics, the methodology used in teaching and the general attitudes of students towards drawing lectures. The paper finally prescribes remedies that would address the listed problems above. Keywords: drawing, teaching, learning, methodology, facilities

Clinical Placement: Experiences, School and Hospital-based Gaps and Challenges of Undergraduate Nursing Students of the University of Cape Coast

The goal of the study was to assess the school-based and hospital-based gaps and challenges among undergraduate nursing students. The specific objectives of the study was identify the gaps between school-based and hospital-based learning, explore students’ clinical practice experiences and to determine the challenges students encounter during clinical placement. The Explanatory Mixed Method Design was used for the study. For the quantitative part, the simple random sampling technique was used to select 141 study participants. Questionnaires were used to collect numeric data. Quantitative data was analysed using IBM SPSS version 21. For the qualitative part, purposive sampling was used to select five participants for interviewing. Braun and Clarke (2006) steps for thematic analysis was employed to analyse the responses for the interviewing. The qualitative data was used to validate the quantitative results.The findings from the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the study point to common gaps and challenges and experiences of nursing students. The findings showed a consensus on differences in types of equipment and availability of equipment, learning experiences and clinical nursing practices between the hospital and school settings. Challenges with students attending more errands, poor supervision and combining school and academic work were also highlighted in the two data sets. However, the two data sets suggest that nurses create an enabling environment for the students to meet their learning objectives. This study has highlighted areas that require improvement and further research. Gaps and challenges with school learning and clinical placement in terms of making students aware of their objectives, availability of equipment, ensuring proper supervision and feedback need to be addressed. Keywords: Undergraduate nursing, clinical placement, hospital learning, theory-practice DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-5-04 Publication date: February 29th 202

Strabismus and Amblyopia in Africa – A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The objective of this review was to estimate the prevalence of strabismus and amblyopia in Africa. A systematic online literature search was conducted for articles on strabismus and amblyopia in Africa. Meta-analysis was performed, using the Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation, to estimate the prevalence of strabismus and amblyopia in Africa. Subgroup analyses were conducted according to age, gender, study year, and type of amblyopia. Meta-regression was used to evaluate the influence of predetermined factors on the prevalence of amblyopia. 8 (1 population-based & 7 school-based) and 21 (3 population-based & 18 school-based) studies on strabismus and amblyopia with sample sizes of 22,355 and 46,841, respectively, were included in the review. Overall prevalence of strabismus in Africa was estimated to be 0.8% (95% CI: 0.4% − 1.4%); exotropia was 0.2% (95% CI: 0.1% − 0.5%) and esotropia was 0.5% (95% CI: 0.1% − 1.2%). Overall prevalence of amblyopia was estimated to be 0.6% (95% CI: 0.3% − 0.9%); refractive and strabismic amblyopia were 1.1% (95% CI: 0.2% − 2.5%) and 0.4% (95% CI: 0.2% − 0.6%), respectively. Prevalence estimate of amblyopia in males was 1.8% (95% CI: 0.7% − 3.3%) and in females was 1.3% (95% CI: 0.4% − 2.6%). There was a significant association between the prevalence of amblyopia and the type of amblyopia (p = .007) and the study year (p = .006). Although there appears to be a relatively low prevalence of strabismus and amblyopia in Africa, there is a dearth of well-designed populationbased studies on strabismus and amblyopia in Africa, resulting in the lack of epidemiological information on strabismus and amblyopia within the general African population. Information about the prevalence of strabismus and amblyopia across Africa can inform policy making and design and implementation of public health intervention program

Why Do Female Lead Auditors Charge a Fee Premium? Evidence from the UK Audit Market

Existing research documents a fee premium for female partner led audits (Ittonen & Peni, 2012; Hardies et al., 2015; Burke et al., 2019; Lee et al., 2019; Hardies et al., 2021). We take this work forward by investigating a possible justification for the observed premium by examining how auditor gender is related to audit report lag and whether the female partner audit fee premium is driven by audit report lag. We find that firms audited by a female lead auditor have a significantly shorter audit report lag but pay a significantly higher audit fee. In further analysis, we find that the fee premium for a female partner led audits is higher for clients receiving a more timely audit opinion. Our findingsare consistent with female lead auditors delivering more timely audits and audit clients being prepared to pay a premium for such timeliness. Our study extends our understanding of the importance of gender in the auditing process and the value clients see in audits led by female auditors. Given the relatively low proportion of female lead auditors, our findings should also encourage audit firms to appreciate the economic value of female lead auditors and to actively facilitate their progression to senior roles