University of Cape Coast Journals
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An analysis of regulatory and institutional challenges in the gold mining sector of Ghana and the way forward
Get PDFThe gold mining sector in Ghana predates independence and has over the years contributed significantly to Ghana’s socio-economic development through revenue generation, employment creation and an increase in foreign direct investments. Ghana has the necessary laws, policies and available institutions to effectively supervise and monitor gold mining activities to ensure development and to minimize environmental degradation. However, some of these mining laws and policies which have direct or indirect impact on development and the environment are not adequately complied with due to lack of effective implementation and monitoring to ensure compliance. The regulatory institutions in the gold mining sector are faced with significant challenges. They include lack of adequate human and institutional capacity; dealing with multiple regulations and inter-institutional conflicts; lack of proper coordination between the institutions and political interference in the permit processing among other challenges. For the institutions to be able to perform their roles of effective monitoring and supervision to ensure effective compliance of mining laws and policies, it would require coordination between the relevant regulatory institutions, addressing the issue of multiple regulations and inter-agency conflicts and provision of sufficient staffing and resources for monitoring, regulatory enforcement and community inter-action. The aim of this article is to highlight the significant challenges facing regulatory bodies in the gold mining sector of Ghana, and suggest some solutions to these challenges
Economic valuation of consumers’ preferences for bush yam attributes: Implications for breeding commercial crop in Ghana
Get PDFBush yam has been underutilized and underrated for long due to its undesirable attributes or traits, hence the commercial and food security potentials of the crop have been downgraded and unexploited. This paper, therefore, explored the Ghanaian bush yam consumers’ decisionmaking behaviour towards the crop’s cultivar selection and the values they place on its diverse attributes. With the aim of examining consumers’ preference and willingness to pay for bush yam, we designed a choice experiment which was implemented through a cross-sectional survey, involving 390 bush yam consumers in the Western-North, Eastern and Central Cocoa Regions of Ghana. We employed Conditional logit to model consumers’ preference behaviour for bush yam attributes from the choice experiment and, subsequently, computed their willingness-to-pay for each attribute, following the Lancaster consumer theory, using the ratios of specific product attributes and cost parameter. Our estimates of consumers’ preferences for bush yam attribute revealed a highly significant preference for bigger tuber size, no colour change and sweet taste attributes. Age, education, marital status, and years of consumption were found to have influenced consumers’ preferences for bush yam attributes. Furthermore, we found that bush yam consumers are willing to pay extra price value for improvement in tuber size, colour change and taste to meet their indicated preferences. We, therefore, recommend that, for breeding programmes to be more effective and sustainable towards developing a commercial cultivar, breeding institutions and policy makers should focus on the preferred attributes as indicated by consumers for a successful future commercialization of bush yam in the countr
Analysis of Socio-Demographics of Necessity-driven Entrepreneurs in Selected Cities in Ghana
Get PDFThe study analysed the dynamics of necessity-driven entrepreneurs, using the sociological approach to start-ups. The paper explored the risk appetite and the entrepreneurial potential of those involved in the street hawking business. Utilising the sequential transformative design, structured interviews were used to collect data from 306 street hawkers in Accra, Kumasi, and Cape Coast. Subsequently, 25 follow-up interviews were conducted, using a structured interview guide. Data were collected over ten months due to the complex nature of the respondents of the study. Descriptive statistics and texts were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that the majority of the respondents had only basic education or no formal education. Furthermore, the respondents were mostly women and young people without formal jobs nor any means of livelihood. The study has implications for policy on education, especially basic and adult education, as several of the respondents barely have basic education. There needs to be a social intervention programme to equip the street hawkers with the right employable skills to help develop their skills and promote the growth of their businesses. The paper also makes a case for nurturing their skills as a means of poverty alleviation
Is the selection of Ghanaian policy makers based on socio-cultural and ethnic reasonings relevant in today’s politics? Evidence from the Cape Coast Metropolis in Ghana
Get PDFThis study examines the effect of appraisive attitudes on citizens’ participation behaviour at the sub-national electoral levels in the Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana. The study was quantitative with cross-sectional explanatory design. The study population was 1145 with a sample size of 291. The SPSS was employed for descriptive analysis and the Smart PLS was employed for structural equation modelling. It was found that all the three dimensions of appraisive attitudes (policy responsiveness, performance and integrity) used in this study have positive effects on citizen participation behaviour in the study area of the Cape Coast Metropolis in Ghana. This means Africans have come of age and the days of choosing Africa policy makers based on socio-cultural and ethnic reasoning appear to be over. Policy makers must, therefore, take into consideration the interests of the citizens and work to improve on their living conditions in order to sustain their political career
APPRAISING THE DYNAMICS OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS JURISDICTION OF THE NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COURT OF NIGERIA: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS
Get PDFFrom the time of its establishment in 1976, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria suffered from a number of constraints and jurisdictional crises. Foremost among these was its non- recognition as a superior court of record as well as the fact that it had no exclusivity of jurisdiction with regards to labour related matters. The passage of the Third Alteration Act to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria came as a ground breaking intervention by firmly entrenching the status of the court as a superior court of record as well as conferring on it exclusive jurisdiction on labour matters. The expansion of the jurisdiction of the court to include among others, human rights issues that have a bearing on labour disputes also carried with it diverse thorny issues that need to be properly addressed and resolved. This paper therefore, attempts to comprehensively identify and analyse these issues bordering on the jurisdiction of the court with special focus on the boundaries of its special human rights jurisdiction as touching on the employer employee relationship. The paper adopts the doctrinal research method in undertaking this research and finds that the expansion of the jurisdiction of the court and the exclusivity of jurisdiction in all such other matters has the potential of restricting access to justice. It calls for the removal of exclusivity of jurisdiction in non-labour related matters, with state high courts having concurrent jurisdiction as well as the creation of additional divisions of the National Industrial Court
Recovering the Uneventful: Trauma and Survival in Sade Adeniran\u27s Imagine This
Get PDFThis article discusses Sade Adeniran’s novel Imagine This and its portrayal of the protagonist’s pain and the efforts she makes to recapture the stable life that preceded her traumatic suffering by telling her story in form of diary entries. It follows theoretical models of trauma as explicated by Cathy Caruth and in particular, Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub’s idea that the subject’s testimony as a necessary catalyst to healing. The article argues that rather than a linear movement from trauma, through testimony, to healing, Imagine This re-conceptualizes traumatic experience and healing as a complex journey that is shaped by multiple trauma events rather than a single one. Thus, the subject’s testimony is constantly interrupted successive sufferings, thereby postponing closure and healing. This relation between the subject and pain implies the individual produces many testimonies rather than one, a crucial strategy for re-imagining the self and to begin the complex journey towards healing.
 
Interrogating the imposition of restrictions law during the covid-19 pandemic in Ghana
Get PDFThe world was confronted with both legal and political issues after the announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on March 11, 2020 of COVID-19 as a pandemic. The declaration led many national governments to implement restrictions to combat the spread of the disease and also to enable them make preparations for the health systems to deal with the emergency on hand. Even though, fundamentally the COVID-19 pandemic is seen as a public health emergency, it has presented a challenge to human rights and the rule of law, which are all crucial in times of national crisis. In Ghana, the government enacted the Imposition of Restrictions law together with other Executive Instruments to enable it deal with the crisis. The need to strike a balance between the public health emergency and the rule of law has led many advocates to question the constitutionality of the legislation that was introduced during the pandemic. This paper aims at interrogating the legitimacy of these laws and whether the government could have explored other available alternatives in dealing with the pandemic, than promulgating a new legislation
RETHINKING LEGAL AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORK FOR SURROGACY THROUGH ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGY IN GHANA AND NIGERIA: LESSONS FROM THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN SURROGACY ACT 2019
Get PDFSurrogacy issues have been on the front burner of the international community, and many countries in the world (including African countries) are making efforts to regulate surrogacy through assisted reproductive technology. Nigeria’s National Health Law 2014 does not have any provision for surrogacy through assisted reproductive technology and the Assisted Reproductive Technology Bill which is at the Nigerian National Assembly since 2016 is yet to be passed into law. Recently, Ghana attempted this through the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 2020 (Act 1027). The law aims to provide for the registration of births, foetal deaths, and death in the country. It officially recognised surrogacy through the assisted reproductive system. Though Ghanaian law only provided for the registration of birth of children born through surrogacy, it recognises the existence of parties to surrogacy. There has been fear that surrogacy practice can turn into modern-day slavery, and human trafficking, putting the lives of the surrogate mother and child in danger if not properly regulated. This article considers the legal framework for surrogacy through assisted reproductive technology in Nigeria and Ghana through doctrinal research methods. The article examines the South Australian Surrogacy Act 2019 and observes that the law is a model law for surrogacy regulation in Nigeria and Ghana. This article in its recommendation suggests that the South Australian Surrogacy Act 2019 should be used as a model for making surrogacy laws for each of the African countries
ECOWAS COMMUNITY COURT OF JUSTICE: FEATURES AND CHALLENGES OF ITS HUMAN RIGHTS MANDATE
Get PDFThe protection and promotion of human rights have remained a top priority of the international community for several decades. The violation of the fundamental rights of States and individuals have given rise to a plethora of conflicts both at the international and national level, thus, requiring effective laws and judicial institutions to accord protection of these rights to persons living within specified national territory. The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice since 2005 acquired jurisdiction over human rights matters, giving bold judgements in condemnation of breach of human rights by member parties of the ECOWAS Community. This paper aims at examining the unique human rights features of the ECOWAS Court of justice as well as the inherent challenges facing the court. The paper finds that despite the huge progress made by the court in receiving and deciding on human rights complaints from individuals and NGOs, the decisions of the court are hardly obeyed by member States and the court has no recognized institution to monitor and implement its decisions. The paper relies on primary and secondary sources of information such as International Conventions and Treaties, Books, Journal articles, Judicial Precedents and Internet materials. The paper concludes that the leadership of ECOWAS Community and the regional court must make concerted efforts in addressing the current challenges confronting the court, including monitoring and implementing the decisions of the ECOWAS Court
Thinking a Post-coronavirus Africa: Reading Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon in the Era of Covid-19
Get PDFThe coronavirus pandemic has exposed Africa’s precarious position within the global system. Once again, Africa is looking to the West for salvation in the form of vaccines and loans. Beyond the economic crisis, however, perhaps the most telling impact of the pandemic is not death but the shame of being postcolonial — a shame that arises from the painful realization that postcolonial is a condition of dependency. There is therefore a growing a critical voice on a post-coronavirus world. However, much of the discussion is taking place in the sciences and the social sciences, to the neglect of the humanities, especially literature. This paper addresses this lacuna by arguing that Amma Darko’s Beyond the Horizon (1995) can help us think a post-coronavirus Africa. Focusing specifically on the title of the novel as encapsulating a narrative of crisis that decolonizes the “beyond” and a subtle pedagogy on how to transcend postcolonial conceptual and material dependency on the West, the paper argues that Darko’s exploration of the shame of being postcolonial and postcolonial liberation is relevant to thinking about a post Covid-19 Africa. It concludes that Darko’s ethico-political vision is located in her subtle affirmation of Fanon’s call on Third World countries to strategically delink from Europe and the West in order to realize and inaugurate a genuine postcoloniality