Haruna Issahaku

Challenges of Electronic Payment Systems in Ghana: The Case of e-ZWICH

Introduced in Ghana in 2008, the e-ZWICH is Africa’s first biometric electronic payment system. Though it was introduced four years ago to promote a cashless society, the level of awareness and patronage seem to be low and some have even predicted its failure in the near future. It is against this background that the study has been conducted to unravel the challenges and prospects associated with the e-ZWICH. The main task of this paper is to examine the challenges associated with the use of e-ZWICH in retail payments. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to fifty (50) e-ZWICH card bearers and thirty (30) non e-ZWICH card bearers. The Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and the Kruskal Wallis test were employed to analyse data from respondents. The study revealed a number of challenges that are militating against the success of the e-ZWICH service. Among these are link failure, frequent breakdown of machines, slow process of service delivery, long queues and inaccessibility of the point of sale devices before and after banking hours. The findings show that despite these challenges, the prospects of the e-ZWICH payment system are great among both users and non-users. Based on the findings, it is recommended that sensitisation workshops should be organised by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System to encourage Ghanaian companies and individuals and in particular the rural folks to patronise the service.

Does the Use of Mobile Phones by Smallholder Maize Farmers Affect Productivity in Ghana

ABSTRACT This study evaluates the effects of mobile technology on productivity and the channels of transmission of these effects. Using propensity score matching procedures, the results show that mobile phone ownership and use significantly improves agricultural productivity. Specifically, the mobile phone improves the productivity of user-farmers by at least 261.20 kg/ha per production season. Further, we find that phone ownership and use impacts productivity more than phone use only. The identified channels of effect are extension services, adoption of modern technology and market participation. These results have key policy implications for Ghana and developing economies at large.

Mobile Telephony, Financial Inclusion and Inclusive Growth

ABSTRACT The paper employs the multipurpose nature of mobile telephony to investigate its welfare implications using a large sample of households in Ghana. We use seemingly unrelated probit and instrumental variable procedure to test for two related issues: First, we investigate whether mobile telephony promotes pro-poor development by helping households to efficiently allocate consumption and navigate out of poverty. Second, we analyze whether access to a broad array of financial services enhances the capacity of households to live worthwhile lives. The results show that mobile penetration and financial inclusion significantly reduce the probability of a household becoming poor and increase per capita household consumption of food and non-food items. Our results show that the welfare benefits of mobile telephony and financial inclusion are not more pronounced in female-headed households. These insights serve as useful guide for government and other stakeholders who are looking for avenues to improve livelihoods.

Food security in the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority Zone of Ghana: an ordered probit with household hunger scale approach

BackgroundFood security has been observed to be severe in northern Ghana than any other area of the country. Though this has been acknowledged, few attempts have been made to curb the situation. One of such intervention areas resides in providing policy-based evidence to guide efforts in fighting this problem. This study employs an ordered probit model using data set from the baseline survey of the USAID’s Feed the Future programme in Ghana to estimate the determinants of food security in northern Ghana. We perform the analysis using a new indicator of food security—the household hunger scale. This measure is different from other household food insecurity indicators since it has been specifically developed and validated for cross-cultural use.ResultsThe estimates show that crop producers, multiple crop producers, yield and commercialization are key policy variables that determine food security. A key policy implication of this result is in tandem with one of the intermediate results of the Ghana Feed the Future Initiative which seeks to increase competitiveness of food value chains through increased productivity and market access.ConclusionsBased on the results, stakeholders should step up efforts to enhance productivity of farm households and provide necessary market infrastructure to boost commercialization, as these are fundamental to ensuring food security.

The effects of cross-border banking and institutional quality on accounting information of banks in Africa

This paper seeks to analyse the implications of cross-border banking and institutional quality for accounting information quality. We sample 330 banks across 29 African countries and employ system GMM estimator as a methodological approach to test for two related hypotheses. First, banks financial statements are prepared on the basis of international accounting standards as banks cross-border when national institutions are strengthened. We build on these results and employ various specifications of institutional quality; the second test suggests that the relative quality of accounting information among banks in Africa during the period, 2002–2013, is attributed to cross-border banking, larger market share and the level of transparency.

International Migrant Remittance and Productivity Growth in Ghana

The study assessed the relationship between productivity growth and remittance at the macro level. Existing studies have largely focused on the micro level which falls short of revealing how shocks in the economy are transmitted through international remittance. Using time series analysis for data covering the period 1975-2013, the results from trend equation revealed that remittance inflows remained positive and increased modestly over time while economic growth as measured by the growth in labour productivity per person has been fluctuating. Regression results showed that remittance is significantly and negatively related to productivity in Ghana. The study revealed that foreign direct investment, official development assistance and international trade are positively related to productivity. It is recommended that government should make the business environment friendly so as to enhance foreign direct investment and boost trade as these have positive impact on productivity. Keywords : Remittance, Total Factor Productivity, Quantile Regression, Migrants, Ghana