Liberalization of the Financial Sector and Access to Credit by the Micro and Small-Scale Enterprises: Conintergration Analysis

The financial system of sub-Sahara African countries had long been shackled with extensive imprudent regulations operated on inefficient grounds. This paper estimates the impact of macroeconomic factors on credit to the private sector with emphasis on micro and small-scale enterprises in a regime of financial sector liberalization in Ghana. The paper demonstrates the predicaments of Ghana’s inability to liberalize its financial sector and the consequent limitations imposed on access to financial services by the micro and small-scale enterprises. We used the Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test for unit root and the Johansen-Juselius multivariate approach to cointegration to test for stationarity and a long-run relationship among the variables in the model. Error correction model (ECM) was used to estimate the short-run impacts. The results indicate that variations in credit to the private sector in a liberalized financial sector are explained significantly by the variables in the model in both the long-run and the short-run. An indication of a large percentage of financial deepening is demonstrated by the study, which leads to an expansion of the volume of institutional credit to enterprises including the micro and small-scale enterprises after the financial sector liberalization in Ghana. Keywords: Cointegration, Stationarity, ADF Test, Error Correction Model, Micro and Small-Scale enterprise

Internalizing the Negative Externalities of Mining in Ghana: Should Corporate Social Responsibility Be Voluntary?

Mining operations in Ghana and elsewhere have resulted in both positive and negative externalities in mining countries. Whilst the positive externalities have always been highlighted, not much attention has been paid to the negative externalities on mining communities despite several protestations from civil societies, NGOs and people living in mining areas. The impact of the negative externalities as manifested in health, social and environmental consequences have been borne by mining communities at huge cost. In the face of the consequences of the negative externalities, many have questioned whether CSR as a mechanism to address mining organizations’ negative impact on society should remain voluntary. This paper looks at the negative externalities of mining activities on communities and proposes that mining companies should internalise the cost of negative externalities arising out of their operations through CSR to avert future regulations of their impact on society. Keywords: Externalities, CSR, Mining, Investment, Cos

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries