Rethinking the design and implementation of financial services for poverty reduction: A case of Northern Ghana

The thesis empirically examines how microfinance products are designed and implemented, and the implications for clients’ households and sources of livelihood. The study argues that the design of products and implementation that reflect the livelihood needs and poverty context of clients is one of the effective ways to reduce poverty. It investigates the microfinance operations of three financial institutions: Sinapi Aba Trust (SAT), St Joseph’s Cooperative Credit Union (CCU) and Sonzele Rural Bank (SRB) in Jirapa, a municipality in Northern Ghana. The study deployed a mixed-methods approach to collect data from six rural and urban communities. Data was sought from secondary sources, 20 interviews, 10 focus group discussions and 120 questionnaires. The research adopted the Sustainable Livelihoods and the Making Markets Work for the Poor approaches as a guide in the framework of analysis. The study, using qualitative and quantitative analytical tools found that product designs of SAT and SRB did not reflect the needs and poverty context of the majority of their clients. Clients of SAT and SRB were found to be less involved in the product design processes, suggesting a top-down institutional approach that seldom incorporated the needs of the poor. The method of group formation has a substantial implication on members’ poverty outcomes. Groups involving only females had a significant and positive relationship with members’ household and business outcomes, while members of male-only groups had a negative relationship with their household outcomes. The thesis concludes that accessible interest on loans and incentives to encourage savings would make microfinance markets work more sustainably for the rural poor. The findings challenge a reconsideration of the design of microfinance products to integrate financial technology as an efficient approach to deliver financial services, especially in rural areas

Charity can still begin at home:Examining the drivers and boundary conditions of Africa-to-Africa outward foreign direct investment (OFDI)

Recent studies on ‘Africa Rising’ and ‘Africa-to-Africa Internationalization’ have propelled conversations on how African Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) can continue to internationalize within African countries. From the tenets of the institutional theory and the dynamic capabilities perspectives, this study proposes and tests a framework of how and when dysfunctional competition drives SMEs' outward foreign direct investments within African countries. Analysis of a survey data from 196 Ghanaian SMEs operating across the African continent indicates that cross-border open innovation mediates the relationship between dysfunctional competition and SMEs' intra- Africa OFDI activities. Further analysis revealed that SMEs' strategic agility plays a double-edged sword moderating role in enhancing the effects of dysfunctional competitions and cross-border open innovation on intra-Africa OFDI. These findings have significant implications for the international business and finance literature as well as the management and growth of African SMEs

Fully compressive tides in galaxy mergers

The disruptive effect of galactic tides is a textbook example of gravitational dynamics. However, depending on the shape of the potential, tides can also become fully compressive. When that is the case, they might trigger or strengthen the formation of galactic substructures (star clusters, tidal dwarf galaxies), instead of destroying them. We perform N-body simulations of interacting galaxies to quantify this effect. We demonstrate that tidal compression occurs repeatedly during a galaxy merger, independently of the specific choice of parameterization. With a model tailored to the Antennae galaxies, we show that the distribution of compressive tides matches the locations and timescales of observed substructures. After extending our study to a broad range of parameters, we conclude that neither the importance of the compressive tides (~15% of the stellar mass) nor their duration (~ 10 Myr) are strongly affected by changes in the progenitors' configurations and orbits. Moreover, we show that individual clumps of matter can enter compressive regions several times in the course of a simulation. We speculate that this may spawn multiple star formation episodes in some star clusters, through e.g., enhanced gas retention.Comment: 17 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Do mobile money services enhance business performance? An empirical analysis of Kenyan businesses

This study examines the impact of mobile money services on business performance by comparing performance between businesses that use and do not use mobile money. The analysis empirically draws on cross-sectional data of 1,001 Kenyan businesses from the 2018 World Bank Enterprise Survey. Propensity Score Matching is used to control for selection bias and variations in business characteristics. The results reveal that businesses that use mobile money services are more likely to be innovative in products and processes than non-users. However, they perform as well as businesses that do not use mobile money. The results also show that differences in business-specific characteristics such as business size, sector, location, and business obstacles significantly influence the adoption of mobile money by Kenyan businesses. Therefore, these results highlight the importance of mobile money services for Kenyan businesses with effective digital tools and support. Policy recommendations to enhance the financial mobile ecosystem and financial inclusion are discussed

Challenges of Sustainability Practices: Evidence From a Gold Mining Multinational Enterprise in Ghana

Drawing on both the stakeholder theory and Carroll’s Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid, this chapter explores sustainability practice challenges of a gold minning multinational enterprise in Ghana. Primary data was collected through observation and the interviewing of multi-stakeholder groups. We found that internal stakeholders perceive sustainability expenditure as costly. However, while employees of the case enterprise see the cost as depleting shareholders’ wealth, managers view them as investment with possible long-term benefits. Meanwhile, the external stakeholders perceive the gold mining enterprise’s sustainability expenditure as meagre and that beneficiary communities are not economically empowered to sustain those investments. Again, we found that government’s inability to clamp down illegal gold mining threatens economic and environmental sustainability. Additionally, members of the host community identify the lack of adequate employment opportunities within the entity as a hindrance to their economic empowerment. We submit that the resolution of the sustainability challenges would contribute to the balancing of stakeholders’ expectations: the conduct of ethical business through compliance to environmental laws; promotion of host communities’ social well-being; and improved economic returns for shareholders. By meeting the needs of stakeholders, gold mining enterprises could gain acceptance in their host communities and boost corporate reputation

Radio galaxies and feedback from AGN jets

We review current understanding of the population of radio galaxies and radio-loud quasars from an observational perspective, focusing on their large-scale structures and dynamics. We discuss the physical conditions in radio galaxies, their fuelling and accretion modes, host galaxies and large-scale environments, and the role(s) they play as engines of feedback in the process of galaxy evolution. Finally we briefly summarise other astrophysical uses of radio galaxy populations, including the study of cosmic magnetism and cosmological applications, and discuss future prospects for advancing our understanding of the physics and feedback behaviour of radio galaxies