African sovereign risk premia and international market assets: A relook under the COVID-19 outbreak.

Using the wavelet multiscale coherence technique, the paper examines the interdependences between global market assets, sovereign credit default swap (CDS) and yield-to-maturity on bond spread for African economies from January 2019 to March 2023. The empirical results primarily reveal a high level of coherence between global market assets and Africa's sovereign CDS and yield-to-maturity, although varying across countries and time-frequency domain. Notably, the high degree of coherence and the positive co-movement between sovereign CDS and global market assets are more concentrated at the medium and upper frequency bands.

Assessing the asymmetric interrelationships between sovereign bond yields and selected potential determinants: The case of frontier WAMZ economies.

The spot of frontier market economies in the global financial arena continues to be significant for many market participants because of their size, diversification advantage, and interconnectedness. Financial market innovations, globalization and pandemics have made it even more urgent to explore their dynamics. This paper focuses on analysing the risks associated with investing in frontier West African monetary zone bonds by appropriately modelling them in relation to cultural, administrative/political, geographic, economic and financial indicators that are specific to these countries, primarily due to their locations and interlinkages.

Hybrid Fourier asymmetric-garch estimation of value at risk and expected shortfall: Empirical evidence from crude oil prices.

We propose a hybrid Fourier approximation in an autoregressive fractional integrated moving average (ARFIMA) model, to account for periodic unoberved components in financial time series. We apply this hybrid model on parametric estimation of value at risk (VaR) and expected shortfall (ES). Using crude oil returns, we show that Fourier approximation inclusion significantly accounts for unobserved periodic components in a VaR estimation using exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) model under generalized error distribution (GED).

Towards an understanding of multi-generational higher education cohorts in gamified entrepreneurship education.

The increasing inclusion of gamified courses in entrepreneurship programmes in higher education have left gaps in understanding the critical essentials of the multi-generational student cohort undertaking these programmes. In this paper, we interrogate the educational experiences of multi-generational higher education students in a core gamified entrepreneurship course in an undergraduate business school programme. The research analyzed 392 course feedback responses from three generations (X, Y and Z) of a multi-generational cohort.

Play for hospitalized children: A qualitative enquiry of behaviour and motivation of nurses in a secondary level healthcare setting in Ghana.

Background: The World Health Organization recommends that healthcare workers, specifically doctors and nurses, utilize play within treatment and care to promote recovery and overall well-being of hospitalized children. This recommendation has extended the roles of nurses in pediatric settings to include play in their routine care for children hospitalized for various childhood illnesses. Nurses need to draw on their skills to use play as an essential tool to aid communication, assessment, diagnosis, and care of the hospitalized child.

Enhancing performance measurement of public procurement processes through the application of procurement delay index.

Considering procurement process performance assessment, measurement systems such as balance scorecard and capability maturity models are used to assess procurement performance to give a reasonable indication of actual performance. These tools are ideal for practical applications that depend on other performance criteria but are short of comparing planned to actual timelines set for procurement processes. This fosters persistent delays in public procurement.

A qualitative enquiry into the challenging roles of caregivers caring for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Ghana.

Background: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition commonly characterized by challenges with social interaction, repetitive atypical behaviour, and restricted interest. It is estimated that about 1 in 160 children has ASD. Caring for children with ASD is challenging for many parents or caregivers.

Recurrent Vulvovaginal Candidiasis: Assessing the relationship between feminine/vaginal washes and other factors among Ghanaian women.

Introduction: Vulvovaginal Candidiasis (VVC) is a public health problem, with approximately 30-50% of women affected at least once during their lifetime. Recurrent Vulvovaginal Candidiasis (RVVC) is diagnosed following three or four repeated episodes of VVC in a calendar year. This condition poses health concerns with significant impacts on the quality of life of women.

Nurses' behavioural intentions towards intravenous fluid administration for pediatric patients: Application of the theory of planned behaviour.

Background: For pediatric patients, the demand for quality and safe Intravenous Fluid (IVF) therapy is huge. This is because, compared to adults, children have a lower tolerance for IVF therapy errors and present devastating physiological responses to errors. Nurses play a vital role in IVF administration; therefore, adequate knowledge, positive attitudes, positive perceived behavioural control, and good behavioural intentions are required to achieve effective and successful therapy, patient safety and prevention of complications, and overall positive patient outcomes.

The role of corruption control and regulatory quality in energy efficiency transition tendencies in Africa.

This study answers an important policy question related to energy efficiency transition tendencies and the role that control of corruption and regulatory quality can play, using the Stochastic Frontier and Panel Markov-Switching techniques with panel data from 46 African countries. We have demonstrated in this study that African countries have been locked in a low energy-efficient state, with tendencies to transition out considered low to moderate with a 21-24% chance and more likely in the long term (i.e.

Information flow between global financial market stress and African equity markets: An EEMD-based transfer entropy analysis.

The flow of information between markets is important to guide investors and policymakers in the effective allocation of assets and proactive market regulation, respectively. This study examines the impact of information flow from global financial market stress on the African stock markets using the daily US financial stress index (USFSI) and other advanced economies' financial stress index (OAEFSI) to proxy the global financial stress index. To understand the information flow dynamics across various investment horizons, the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD)-based transfer entropy is employed.

Co-movement between equity index and exchange rate: Fresh evidence from COVID-19 era.

This paper probes deeper into the co-movement of Ghana's equity index and exchange rate with international equity markets and further determine whether these co-movements are driven by global uncertainties. Also, we sought to determine how the COVID-19 pandemic alters the dynamics of these relationships. We employ the wavelet technique to data from January 19, 2012 to March 1, 2021 to the split between pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 periods.

COVID -19 Morbidity and mortality in tropical countries: The effects of economic, institutional, and climatic variables.

Despite the significant and rising human and economic costs of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), our knowledge on its epidemiology remains limited necessitating expedited research to aid public policy. This study contributes to the knowledge gap by focusing on exploring the effects of potential covariates (economic, institutional, and climatic conditions) on COVID-19 in tropical countries. Using an Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression, our results showed a non-linear relationship between temperature and infection-to-test ratio.

COVID-19 and handwashing: Implications for water use in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Because the main modes of transmission of the COVID-19 virus are respiration and contact, WHO recommends frequent washing of hands with soap under running water for at least 20 s. This article investigates how the level of concern about COVID-19 affects the likelihood of washing hands frequently in sub-Saharan Africa. We discuss the implication of the findings for water-scarce environment.

Stockpiling and food worries: Changing habits and choices in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic.

Albeit, governments have instituted strong containment measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns of continuous local spread and economic impact of the virus are impacting global food chains and food security. This paper investigates the effect of concern about the i) local spread and ii) economic impact of COVID-19, on the change in the amount of food and necessities bought in twelve Sub-Sahara African countries. In addition, we examine if these effects are channeled through food worries.

The role of climate adaptation readiness in economic growth and climate change relationship: An analysis of the output/income and productivity/institution channels.

Although, climate change produces a wide range of effects, including output, institution, conflict, investment and etc., there is little knowledge on whether adapting to climate change could produce effects beyond the level of income to include other non-economic channels. This study examines whether the effect of climate change on economic growth and political stability (measure for productivity growth) depends on the level of climate adaptation readiness, using data from 44 African countries.

Electricity transmission, distribution losses and economic growth in South Africa.

This paper employed the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) methodology to examine the effect of electricity transmission and distribution losses (ETL) on the economic growth of South Africa over the period 1971-2014. After controlling for foreign direct investment (FDI) and financial development, the results of the study show long-run negative relationship between ETL and economic growth. For robustness checks, we account for non-linearities/asymmetries in our model and find that a percentage increase in ETL decreases economic growth from 3.

Understanding satisfaction essentials of E-learning in higher education: A multi-generational cohort perspective.

Despite the increasingly critical role of e-learning in higher education, there is limited understanding of the satisfaction essentials of multi-generational students' cohorts undertaking online courses. In this study, we examine the perceived value of educational experiences of multi-generational students' cohorts studying via an online learning management system (Moodle). The study analysed survey responses from multi-generational students (N = 611) on a core subject in an undergraduate business school programme.

Access to a quality healthcare among prisoners - perspectives of health providers of a prison infirmary, Ghana.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of health system factors on access to a quality healthcare among prisoners in Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach: Data were gathered using different qualitative methods (interviews and participant observation) with staff of the James Camp Prison, Accra. Findings were analyzed using a framework method for the thematic analysis of the semi-structured interview data; and interpreted with the theoretical perspective of health systems thinking and innovation.

Socio-economic determinants of life expectancy in Nigeria (1980 - 2011).

Attainment of 70 years life expectancy by 2020 is one of the millennium development goals in Nigeria. This study examined the socio-economic determinants of life expectancy in Nigeria using data from 1980-2011. Judging from the endogeneity feature of the variables, A VAR and VECM frameworks were employed.