Beyond the glass ceiling: an exploration of the experiences of female corporate organizational leaders in Ghana

Although an increase in the inclusion of women in the global labor market has been reported in recent times, existing literature show that women are still heavily underrepresented in organizational leadership positions. Many studies in this area mainly focused on perceived barriers to women’s ascend to leadership positions, while little attention is paid to insights into the lived experiences of women who have already managed to assume leadership positions. This study was conducted to plug this gap in the literature. We interviewed 10 women corporate organizational leaders in Ghana to share their lived experiences as female leaders within the Ghanaian context. Our findings reveal that women still face several challenges even after breaking the glass ceiling to attain leadership positions in corporate organizations in Ghana. The main challenges were raised around the issue of gender, discrimination, age, their roles as mothers and wives. On the other hand, their positions also came with benefits and opportunities such as improved financial status, a command for respect as well as increasing their social and business networking capacity. More importantly, age although a disadvantage for the young women leaders, it was seen as a resource for older women as it enhances their respect and seen as performance of motherhood roles in this Ghanaian context. The study concludes that although women leaders’ experiences are largely negative, older women leaders seemed to utilize their positions actively and creatively and perform pseudo-motherhood roles which in turn helps them in the performance of their leadership roles.publishedVersio

An empirical analysis of the impacts of external capital inflows and world oil price on africa's 'largest' market

There is a continued debate that external financial resources complement the limited domestic funds for growth, especially in developing countries, while others are of the view that external finances mostly impede economic growth and development. This article is an attempt to analyze the inflows of some external financial capital such as FDI, external debt, migrants’ remittances and ODA, along with world oil price on economic growth (captured by real GDP) in Nigeria. In order to capture both the short run and the long run effects of the variables on the economy, an econometric technique, Nerlove’s Partial Adjustment Model (PAM) was employed using yearly data from 1981 to 2012. Our results suggest that in both the short run and long run, FDI and world oil price will boost economic growth in Nigeria. Not too surprisingly, our findings equally suggest that the relationship between world oil price and economic growth may not be linear after all and we have evidence to show that this relationship is likely concave in nature. In the same vein, further findings show that migrant remittance is likely to have an adverse effect on the nation’s real GDP, while external debt and ODA do not make any significant contribution to the nation’s real GDP. We argue that for Nigeria to fully benefit from the flows of global finances, policy makers should on an ongoing basis weigh the costs and benefits associated with foreign capital inflows to the country. As is often the case, no country can compete favorably on the world market without prudent resource management and sound investment climate. Undoubtedly, with effective and efficient utilization of external financial resources, sound monetary and fiscal policies, institutional reforms in all sectors of the economy, Nigeria can witness not only accelerated but also more inclusive growth in the present era of financial globalization. © 2015, World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society. All rights reserved

The New Oil Sector and the Dutch Disease: the Case of Ghana

This paper investigates the impact of the new oil sector on the economic performance of major traditional sectors of the Ghanaian economy. The discovery of resource booming sectors in most countries often comes with several opportunities as well as challenges. Ghana discovered oil in 2007 and started subsequent commercial production and export in 2010. The results from the study show that, there is no clear case of declining performance of sectors in terms of output, growth and export earnings as a result of the oil production. The study could also not establish a sustained appreciation in the real effective exchange rate since commercial oil production commenced which is an indicator of the presence of the Dutch Disease phenomenon. The real effective exchange rate was also found to be highly influenced by oil production, oil prices, total exports and remittances. The study applied an autoregressive distributed lag model due to differences in the level of integration of variables. The data was obtained from the Bank of Ghana, the Ministry of Finance in Ghana and the Energy Information Administration

Socioeconomic Impact of Mining in the Atiwa Forest Reserve of Ghana on Fringe Communities and the Achievement of SDGs: Analysis from the Residents' Perspective

The Atiwa forest reserve of Ghana sits upon roughly 150 million tons of bauxite. The Government has decided to mine and use the proceeds for national infrastructure development programs. This article examines the impact of mining on the residents' livelihoods and the achievement of the SDGs from the perspective of the residents. A questionnaire was administered to 197 respondents. Per the findings, the residents around the forest reserve do not consent to the proposed mining project. Although they give credit to its possible job creation opportunities, the irreplaceable nature of the forest reserve urges them not to consent to the initiative. They depend on the rivers and streams for their livelihoods, and the affected districts are also among Ghana's major cocoa producers. These farmers depend on these water bodies for irrigation. It is necessary to preserve them in order to sustain the production of these cash crops that make a direct contribution to the country's GDP.O

Migrants’ remittances: A complementary source of financing adaptation to climate change at the local level in Ghana

Purpose – The much-trumpeted Green Climate Fund and several other official financial mechanisms for financing adaptation to climate change under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have fallen short in meeting adaptation needs. Many poorer people are still grappling with the scourge of climate change impacts. Consequently, there has been a dominant research focus on climate change financing emanating from official development assistance (ODA), Adaptation Fund, public expenditure and private sector support. However, there has been little attempt to examine how migrants’ remittances can close adaptation financing gaps at the local level, ostensibly creating a large research gap. This paper aims to argue that migrants’ remittances provide a unique complementary opportunity for financing adaptation and have a wider impact on those who are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is aligned to the qualitative research approach. Both secondary and primary data acquired through interviews and focus group discussions were used for the study. Multiple sampling methods were also used to select the respondents. Findings – The findings show that remittances are used to finance both incremental costs of households’ infrastructure and consumption needs, as well as additional investment needs to be occasioned by ongoing or expected changes in climate. Originality/value – In the wake of dwindling government/public revenue, ODA and poor commitment of Annex II countries to fulfil their financial obligations, the study makes the following recommendations: First, the financial infrastructure underpinning money transfers in both sending and recipient countries should be improved to make transfers attractive. Second, significant steps should be taken to reduce the fees on remittance services, especially for the small transfers typically made by poor migrants. Finally, adequate climatic information should be made available to local people to ensure that remittances are applied to the right adaptation option to avoid maladaptation