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Purpose This paper aims to assess the impact of infrastructure development on Ghana’s economic growth. Design/methodology/approach Using data obtained from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, the United States’ (US) International Energy Statistics and the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) Factbooks from 1980 to 2016, an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) framework is used to determine the long- and short-run impact of the selected infrastructure stock and quality indices on Ghana’s economic growth. Findings Findings indicate a statistically significant relationship between infrastructure development and economic growth. Additionally, electricity-generating capacity is identified as the infrastructure stock index that has the greatest positive impact on Ghana’s economic growth. The study reveals that electricity-distribution loss has a significant negative effect over both long- and short-run periods. Research limitations/implications Commercial petroleum export from Ghana since 2010 has been a key contributor to economic growth. Although its aggregate effect is included in the annual GDP figures adopted for the study, the authors would have wished to assess its impact on GDP as an independent standard growth determinant. However, because of a lack of available data over this study period, petroleum exports could not be adopted as an independent standard growth determinant. Additionally, an aggregated index of infrastructure stock and quality could not be derived because of the small size of data available. Hence, this study did not assess its impact on Ghana’s economic growth. Practical implications The research provides pragmatic guidance to policymakers to focus their efforts on expanding electricity-generating capacity while simultaneously taking steps to curb electricity transmission and distribution losses. These two related actions offer the greatest positive impact on infrastructure development and, as a consequence, Ghana’s economic growth. Originality/value This paper represents the first attempt to empirically study the relationship between infrastructure development and Ghana’s economic growth. A key contribution to the existing body of knowledge includes strong evidence of a positive effect of infrastructure development upon Ghana’s economic growth. Results also reveal that the greatest positive impact on economic growth is derived from electricity-generation capacity. However, the study also uncovers a negative, but statistically significant, relationship between road and economic growth.

PurposeConditions of inadequate and asymmetric information when an agent is hired by a principal have resulted in the problems of moral hazard and adverse selection (MHAS) in public–private partnership (PPP) construction projects. The purpose of this study is to explore strategies to reduce MHAS in PPP construction projects.Design/methodology/approachQuestionnaires were used to elicit responses from respondents. Mean score ranking was used to rank these strategies while reliability analysis was conducted using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and level of agreement tested using Kendall’s concordance. Factor analysis grouped the strategies into eight components.FindingsFrom the mean score ranking, monitoring; transfer of risks; screening; managing of construction risks; and increased incentives to control costs were the most significant strategies. The eight components were transparent process and contract, incentives and monitoring, screening and technical assistance, unbundling and benchmarking, funding and small liabilities, information clarification and signaling, risk and contract management and cooperation and finance factors.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study have identified the most significant strategies to reduce MHAS on PPP construction projects to serve as a guide to PPP practitioners in reducing MHAS.Originality/valueThe output of this research contributes to the checklist of strategies that reduce PPP project failures arising from MHAS and contributes to the development of the agency theory.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the free zone enclaves have succeeded in raking in foreign direct investments for Ghana. It further reviews the performance of companies operating in these free zones and the challenges militating against their optimal performance. The researchers used a combination of descriptive and data mining research methodology. Data was gleaned from published report from the Ghana free zones Authority, the Ghana Investments Promotions Council, the Bank of Ghana, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and the World Bank. It emerged that, there is considerable difficulty in land acquisition because of Ghana's land tenure system. Nonetheless, there has been progress in the drive to attract FDI through free zone enclaves. However, there are some companies in the free zone enclave that are dormant. It also emerged that, the percentage of Free Zone Enterprises contribution to total Foreign Direct Investment inflows in Ghana has been trending negatively recently. It is therefore recommended that, Ghana Free Zones Board simplifies the legal framework in which free zone companies operate such as easing land acquisition procedures, providing flexible tax payment structure and giving exemptions for certain strict labor laws. It is also suggested that the Ghana Free Zones Board considers creating zones with sectoral specialization rather than the current multi-activity-oriented nature of the free zones governed by a highly opportunistic «take all» approach, typical of developing economies.

Purpose Globally, waste management has been a topical issue in the past few decades due to the continual increase in municipal solid waste (MSW) generation that is becoming difficult to handle with conventional waste management techniques. The situation is much more pronounced in economically developing countries where population growth rate and urbanisation are becoming uncontrollable. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential for waste to energy generation in the Kumasi metropolis, the second-largest city in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach To address the objectives of the study, a quantitative research approach, namely, the questionnaire was adopted. The data analysis was done using the statistical package for social sciences version 25, including both descriptive and inferential statistics to give an in-depth meaning to the responses from the participants. Findings The results showed that several factors hinder waste to energy technology in Ghana; key among them was high capital cost, high operational cost and lack of governmental support and policy framework. The results also revealed that 1 m3 of biogas generated from MSW in Kumasi could generate 36 MJ of energy, equivalent to 10 kW/h. Originality/value The unique contribution made by the paper is that it combines expert opinions, empirical data that included time series data and opinion of key actors in the waste management chain in assessing the potential for waste to energy generation in the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana.

Purpose Kumasi Metropolis, the second-largest city in Ghana is known to be bewildered with challenges relating to waste management. As a means of solving the waste management challenge, several suggestions are often made for the establishment of a waste-to-energy plant to manage the disposal of waste and generation of income. There have been no studies conducted to determine how economically viable such plants will be. This study aims to examine the economic viability of waste-to-energy generation in the Kumasi Metropolis to find out how economically viable such an approach will be. Design/methodology/approach To achieve this, a simple debt-equity ratio business model based on discounted cash flow technique was applied to estimate the internal rate of returns (IRR) as a measure of the economic viability and profitability of a modelled 50 MWH waste-energy generation plant in the Kumasi Metropolis. The analysis was performed using the RetScreen Expert Software. Findings The results show that the IRR and benefits cost ratio of the facility were 36% and 5.8%, respectively, indicating high levels of profitability and economic viability. The study concludes that waste-to-energy generation will be an economically viable venture in the Kumasi Metropolis. Practical implications It is, however, important for users of the findings of this study to take caution of the fact that the various assumptions although based on current knowledge and expert opinion may vary with time; therefore, the sensitive analysis on price and costs should always be considered. Practically, this study will contribute to solving the waste management situation in most cities, as well as generating revenue and helping close the energy deficit most developing countries are grabbling with. Originality/value The unique contribution of the study to knowledge is that it has professed an alternative analytical and methodological approach to measuring the financial viability of waste-to-energy plants in situations where there is none in the geographical jurisdiction of the proposed project.

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth in Ghana, by examining the effect of FDI flow, FDI stock and FDI per capita on economic growth. The study adopted the quantitative and descriptive research design to analyse annual time series data on the dependent and independent variables spanning twenty-seven (27) years from 1996 to 2022. The ordinary least square and seemingly unrelated regression techniques were used for data analysis. The study revealed that FDI flow, FDI stock and FDI per capita had a statistically significant positive effect on per capita economic growth. The study thus recommended that the government of Ghana should intensify its efforts to carefully develop and implement progressive and attractive policies that can induce more investment from foreign multinationals, thereby increasing the stock of external capital inflows that can be channelled into the most value generating sectors of the country to eliminate production inefficiencies and boost domestic output that can increase economic growth. Additionally, the government of Ghana through the appropriate agencies can improve the enforcement of its regulatory policies to ensure that multinational firms and the general activities of foreign investors consistently provide fair and commensurate wages to Ghanaian workers, in order to promote the beneficial effects that FDI has on reducing income inequality in Ghana. MNCs must therefore provide the same value of remuneration for the same level of skills-quality and demand that workers in other economies would receive. This will eliminate wage differentials, transition low-wage earners into higher income status and thus reduce income inequality.