Within the developing world, especially Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), informal (small and medium) enterprises’ (SMEs) access to financing has been extremely limited mainly because of the reluctance of banks and other formal financial institutions to lend to such firms. The impact of this challenge on their growth trajectory has remained relatively indeterminate. This study examines the differential impact of sources of finance on the growth of informal firms in Ghana.

PurposeThis study examines the relationships between parents' and children's occupations to determine the existence of intergenerational transmission of occupations.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve the purpose of the study, four predominant occupational types based on the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO): agriculture and forestry; services and sales; managerial/administrative; and professional/technical are examined using data from the latest (7th) round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS).

Although Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) promotes technical change in cocoa farming with innovative technologies and input support, crop productivity is better advanced by improving on the efficiency of input use by farmers. This study thereby investigates the technical efficiency of cocoa farmers in Ghana. The study uses cross sectional field data covering Western North, Ashanti, Eastern, Volta and Brong-Ahafo regions of Ghana on a sample of 899 cocoa farmers and adopts Meta frontier stochastic frontier analysis to derive production efficiencies for each region.

Ghana’s tourism industry has witnessed steady growth over the past two to three decades, which has translated into increasing tourism receipts. This paper examines the economic determinants of international tourism demand in Ghana using data on tourist arrivals from the country’s major generating markets outside Africa from 1995 to 2014. We employ the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) estimation approach.

AbstractThe paper assesses the ex‐post trade effect of sub‐regional trade agreements (RTAs), financial integration and other non‐tariff barriers on intra‐regional trade involving 43 Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. The objective is to find out if RTAs within SSA had increased trade flows to inform current efforts of establishing a successful continental free trade area in SSA.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) aims to create a single liberalised market for goods, services, and capital, with arrangements to ease the movement of persons, deepen integration, and propel economic transformation. Africa's trade and migration are closely related, often having mutually reinforcing effects on each other and a strong implication for development. The AfCFTA is crucial in enhancing the level of intra-Africa trade and can affect the continent's migration patterns.

First and foremost, the study explored why countries in Africa are rich in natural resources yet resort to e-levy legislation for more revenues. In addition, the study investigated dimensions of education needed to facilitate successful mobilization of e-levy revenue in resource -rich yet poor countries in Africa. Qualitative exploratory design, semi-structured interviews, judgmental and snowball sampling techniques were used for the study. Twelve (12) scholars from US (N = 3), Uganda (N = 3) Canada (N = 3), Ghana (N = 3) were interrogated.

Ghana-s current youth unemployment rate is 19.7%, and the country faces a significant youth unemployment problem. While a range of youth-employment programs have been created over the years, no systematic documentation and evaluation of the impacts of these public initiatives has been undertaken. Clarifying which interventions work would guide policy makers in creating strategies and programs to address the youth-employment challenge.

AbstractAdequate flow of appropriate information to farmers is vital for accelerating the uptake of modern agricultural technologies and improving access to markets, all of which are important for the transformation of African economies. Yet there is limited evidence regarding how information should be disseminated to farmers to achieve the needed impact. Should ICT‐based approaches be used together with traditional methods, or should they be used alone?