University of Cape Coast Journals
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Legal Pathways to Inclusive Enterprise: Examining Gender Protection and Empowerment in Ghana’s Affirmative Action Framework
Get PDFThis paper examines Ghana’s Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act, 2024 (Act 1121), a landmark legal and policy intervention designed to address persistent gender inequalities in governance, entrepreneurship, and social protection. While affirmative action has historically been a central tool for advancing women’s rights in Ghana—evolving across three distinct generations from the 1960s to the 2020s—the passage of the Act represents the most comprehensive legislative attempt to institutionalise gender equality. Drawing on feminist legal theory, which interrogates the ways laws reproduce gendered power hierarchies, and social protection theory that emphasises redistributive justice and gender-responsive policy, the study interrogates the Act’s transformative potential and limitations. Methodologically, the research employs qualitative thematic analysis of the Act’s key provisions; Sections 3, 17, 24, and Schedule 4, and in-depth interviews with fifteen participants, including gender advocates, students, senior and junior staff of the University of Cape Coast, and a legal practitioner. Findings highlight the Act’s strengths, such as mandating public and private institutions to implement gender equality policies, incentivising compliance through tax relief and procurement preferences, embedding protections for informal sector workers, and establishing monitoring and grievance redress mechanisms. The study also identifies significant implementation challenges, as participants emphasised limited public awareness, cultural barriers restricting women’s opportunities, insufficient financial resources, and weak enforcement mechanisms. Comparative literature suggests risks of elite capture, bureaucratic delays, and urban bias, which could undermine it’s effectiveness. While the Act represents a crucial policy milestone, its success depends on sustained political will, adequate resource allocation, community-level awareness campaigns, and strong institutional enforcement
Rent Tax Education, Rent Tax Compliance Cost and Rent Tax Compliance in Ghana
Get PDFThis study investigated the moderating role of the cost of complying with the rent tax on the relationship between rent tax education and tax compliance in Ghana, using a quantitative approach with 146 property owners and renters as the audience. Employing PLS-SEM analysis, the research revealed a significant positive relationship between rent tax education and compliance and, between compliance cost and compliance. However, the study found no significant moderating effect of compliance costs on the education-compliance relationship. The Importance-Performance Map Analysis showed that rent tax education was a very important and effective way to get people to comply, while compliance cost was only moderately important and effective. These findings suggest that targeted educational programmes could significantly improve compliance rates for rent tax, while the impact of compliance costs, though positive, is less pronounced. The study recommends investing in extensive education programmes for rent tax, simplifying compliance procedures, and implementing effective communication strategies to enhance voluntary compliance. This paper contributes to an understanding of compliance dynamics regarding rent tax in Ghana; hence, it is valuable information for policymakers and tax authorities in developing focused compliance strategies that would enhance revenue generation in developing economies
Influence of Celebrity Expertise on Brand Loyalty in the Nigerian Telecommunications Sector
Get PDFThis study assessed the effect of celebrity expertise on brand loyalty in the Nigerian telecommunications sector, while multiple celebrity endorsements served as a moderating variable. A cross-sectional survey research design was adopted. A structured questionnaire was used as a research instrument. A sample size of 2000 respondents, out of which 1200 complete responses were judgmentally selected for final analysis. Data were analysed using Pearson’s Product-Moment correlation and multiple regression. The findings revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between celebrity expertise and brand loyalty (r = 0.558, p<0.05); while multiple celebrity endorsement has a significant effect on the relationship between celebrity expertise and brand loyalty (F(2, 1195) = 2484.682, p<0.05, Adj. R2 0.327). The study concluded that celebrity expertise exerts a great influence on brand loyalty. It is recommended that telecom service subscribers should base the adoption of telecom services being promoted by a celebrity on the expertise of the endorser. The telecom service providers should engage the services of celebrities who possess behavioural expertise that are in congruence with customers’ values and interests
Psychological Distress and Intention to quit. The Moderating role of Compensation among teachers in Second-cycle Institutions in Cape Coast, Ghana.
Get PDFThis research aimed to investigate the link between psychological distress’s dimensions and the intention to quit with the moderating role of compensation system among teachers in Second Cycle Institutions in Cape Coast Metropolis, Central Region of Ghana. The study employed a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional survey and explanatory research design. Using a sample of 167 responses from teachers, a Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyse the relationships among the variables. The findings revealed a significant positive relationship between the various dimensions (emotional, cognitive, behavioural, and physiological) of psychological distress and teachers’ intention to quit. The study also found out that compensation plays a full moderating role in the relationship between psychological distress and the intention to quit. It was therefore recommended that management of Second Cycle Institutions in Cape Coast Metropolis should have a better system of compensation put in place so as to motivate teachers to remain in the profession
TYRON MARHGUY V. BOARD OF GOVERNORS ACHIMOTA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL: A COMMENTARY
Get PDFThis comment is a reflection on the 2021 Ghanaian case of Tyron Marhguy v. Board of Governors Achimota Senior High School and Anor (hereafter, Marhguy) and brings to the fore the Ghanaian judicial standpoint on the enforcement of the right to freedom of religion and belief. In the case, the Applicant successfully contested the violation of his fundamental human right to freedom of religion and belief. Jurisprudentially, Marhguy is phenomenal, being a locus classicus setting out the judicial approval to the constitutional protection of religious liberty in Ghana. More importantly, Ghana is a country with constitutional democracy and religious pluralism, and the effect of the case may ultimately shape religion-state relations in the country. Expectedly, given the religiosity of Ghanaians, the court decision elicited much public commentary and debate; but as significant as the case, there has not been much legal and academic discourse on it. The issues that resonated in the case touch on constitutionally guaranteed human rights, including the right to freedom of religion and belief, the right to education, and the right to human dignity. However, the focus of this commentary is limited to the issues concerning the right to freedom of religion. Thus, after a summary of the facts of the case and the decision of the court, this discussion primarily evaluates only the issue
The Challenges of University Knowledge and Technology Transfer on Entrepreneurial and Industrial Innovation - A Case Study of the University of Rwanda
Get PDFThis study aims at investigating the challenges of Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) in support of entrepreneurial and industrial innovation in Rwanda, particularly the University of Rwanda. The Triple Helix Model, which emphasizes university-industry-government collaboration, and the Technology Transfer Process Model are frameworks used to examine the challenges and opportunities associated with knowledge and technology diffusion and commercialization. A quantitative methodology approach (quantitative surveys) was developed to research what works best from a knowledge-translation point KTT mechanism. The results indicate that though some strides have been made, KTT in Rwanda remains demarcated and, above all, deficient in terms of industrial engagement, institutional support, research funding, and scattered application of the policies. The absence of defined collaborative mechanisms has led to poor commercialization and thus weakened the effect of academic research on development in the economy. This study advocates an AI-driven, KTT framework that is policy-wise consistent and features well-structured university-industry partnerships through AI-powered research matchmaking; digital Intellectual property (IP) management and an improved governmental incentive to fill these gaps. According to the recommendations, the establishment of a National Knowledge Transfer Office (NKTO) will be helpful to enhance commercialization grants, industry-academia training programs, and stronger IP protection policies. Therefore, the modification of the knowledge transfer ecosystem towards a more interactive one is to stimulate the rapid commercialization of research and the enhancement of entrepreneurship, as well as giving Rwanda share to innovation-led economic growth
Key Drivers for Strategic Organizational Survival in Nigeria: Case of Quantity Surveying Consultancy Firms
Get PDFThe implementation of survival strategy is challenging because of the complexity of making strategic decisions that would ensure the continuous existence of the organization. For quantity surveying firms, several strategies have been suggested to survive challenging and turbulent economic environment. However, these firms are yet to gain insight into the factors that can influence or drive the implementation of appropriate survival strategies. Hence, the need for the study to examine the drivers to implementing survival strategy in quantity surveying firms in Nigeria. The study adopted the survey research approach and through the questionnaire, One Hundred and Thirty (130) quantity surveying firms were purposively selected in South-west, Nigeria. The 99 responses received from the principal partner or senior management personnel of these firms were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. From the result, it was revealed that the decision to implement survival strategies in quantity surveying firms is based on the desire of the firm to improve performance, operational efficiency, anticipating changes in firm, innovativeness, technical edge and so on. Additionally, the study categorized the drivers into five distinct factors driving the implementation of survival strategy thereby indicating that quantity surveying firms must focus on both internal and external driving forces. The prioritized drivers are strategic leadership and market intelligence, innovation and competitive edge, policy alignment and performance, cost discipline and project security and growth and competitive positioning. The study concluded that the implementation of survival strategies in quantity surveying firms would be successful when factors that can drive its implementation are carefully considered. Hence, this study suggests that the partners or top management of quantity surveying firms in Nigeria and worldwide should organize summit to deliberate on the pros and cons of implementing strategies as well as the driving force for each strategy
REPRESENTATION OF INDIGENEITY IN THE POSTCOLONIAL DETECTIVE NOVEL: A LITERARY ANALYSIS OF NII AYIKWEI PARKES\u27 TAIL OF THE BLUE BIRD
Get PDFNii Ayikwei Parkes’ Tail of the Blue Bird has gained critical attention as a significant literary achievement and an exemplum of the postcolonial detective novel. Nonetheless, how the novel constructs locational identity as a way of contesting western ideals, epistemologies of knowing, and globalization of the English language is less discussed. Using the postcolonial concept of indigeneity, the paper explores elements of indigeneity in Tail of the Blue Bird and how these assert the Ghanaian cultural identity. The paper demonstrates that language, naming and traditional storytelling are three cogent ways indigeneity manifest in the novel. Despite the onslaught of globalization, Parkes uses these aforementioned elements as an art form that offers incremental advance in preserving Ghanaian history and records, resisting the othering of Ghanaian languages and culture, and unapologetically projecting the unique belief systems and values of the Akan culture. Overall, the paper contributes to ongoing scholarship on the reclamation of African identities in postcolonial literature and highlights Tail of the Blue Bird as a vital text for understanding identity formation and cultural resistance in African narratives.
Keywords: Ghanaian, Indigeneity, naming, Tail of the Blue Bird, traditional storytellin
“WELCOME HOME”: THE UNHOMELY IN YAA GYASI’S HOMEGOING
No full textThis paper critically examines the contested and ambiguous notion of the home in postcolonial and diasporic contexts, utilizing Yaa Gyasi’s transformative neo-slave narrative, Homegoing (2016), as a focal point. By intricately tracing the story of seven familial generations over three centuries across Ghana and America, Gyasi portrays Atlantic deracination, diaspora, and transnationalism as both individual and collective experiences. In this way, as the novel’s title suggests, the home, as both a physical and psychological space, is desired but also elusive. The perpetuation of homegoing, thus, connects characters despite physical, temporal, and generational separation—meaning that the emergence of the home and the return to the home are interconnected. This paper draws on Homi Bhabha’s concept of the unhomely—a condition in which the boundaries between the private and the public blur, creating a postcolonial space that is both familiar and estranged. In this regard, Bhabha provides a framework for how characters within Homegoing engage with things left unsaid, unresolved histories, and unspoken truths that suddenly re-emerge within the political and social existence. This paper analyzes the establishment of an anchored yet ambiguous “non-place”—characterized by de-rootedness—which produces cyclical hauntings and a fractured sense of the home for subsequent generations. Ultimately, this paper concludes that despite the sense of unhomeliness, the contemporary generation finds a sense of reconciliation with the home by returning to and tentatively reconnecting with their origins
GHANA\u27S NEED FOR SOCIOLOGICAL JURISPRUDENCE: A CRITICAL APPLICATION OF ROSCOE POUND\u27S THEORY
No full textThis paper critically examines the applicability and relevance of Roscoe Pound’s sociological jurisprudence to the legal and educational systems of Ghana. It argues that while Ghana’s legal architecture is constitutionally sound and institutionally robust, it remains constrained by inherited colonial formalism, doctrinal rigidity, and cultural alienation. Drawing on Pound’s foundational thesis, law must function as a tool for social engineering rather than a self-contained doctrinal system. The paper assesses Ghana’s jurisprudential trajectory and identifies a critical need to align legal norms, practices, and education with the socio-cultural realities of the Ghanaian populace. Through a desktop methodology grounded in doctrinal analysis and comparative legal theory, the study interrogates the formalism in judicial reasoning, the marginalization of customary law, and the doctrinal orthodoxy prevalent in legal education. It proposes a sociologically informed legal reform agenda encompassing interdisciplinary legal education, empirical legal research, and context-sensitive judicial interpretation. The study finds that integrating local knowledge systems, advancing community-based legal pedagogy, and democratizing access to justice are essential for the evolution of a Ghanaian legal system that is equitable, dynamic, and culturally responsive