African Journal of Economic and Business Research

Determinants of Farmers’ Willingnessto Pay for Crop Insurance in Ankober Woreda, North Shewa Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia.

Getamesay Bekele — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0300

ABSTRACT

This study examines the Determinants of Farmers’ Willingness to Pay for Crop Insurance in Ankober Woreda, North Shewa Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia. The study used cross-sectional data from 245 randomly selected farm households from seven Ankober kebeles. It used binary Logit model to identify the main determinants of farmers’ willingness for crop insurance. The result showed that the maximum mean willingness to pay (WTP) for crop insurance in the study area is 272.5ETB (6.054$)/season / 0.25hectar and their WTP ranges from 0 ETB to 3000 ETB/ha/per season. From empirical findings, 15 explanatory variables are used in logit regression model; nine variables have shown key determinants for farmer’s willingness to pay for crop insurance in the study area. Accordingly, age of farmer’s, farmer’s education level, TLU, Credit access, income from crop production, saving habit, Awareness for Crop Insurance and Information access are statistically significant variables that determines farmers’ willingness to pay crop insurance in the study area at 1% and 5% significant level. Thus, the policy makers should work on providing education and training, expansion of credit deliver institutions, encouraging saving habit, accessing more information for crop insurance schemes and different activities for knowing crop insurance implementation in the study area.

Keywords: Ankober, Binary logit, crop insurance, WTP

Employee Retention and Organizational Performance in Higher Learning Institutions: Case of the University of Rwanda

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0300

This study aims to analyze the influence of employee retention on an organization's performance at the University of Rwanda. It used a quantitative design, and a survey questionnaire was administered to a sample of 221 employees of the University of Rwanda. The data were recorded by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Data were analyzed using percentages and frequencies. The research found that there is a strong relationship between attractive remuneration packages and organization performance at 0.882; that there is a strong relationship between training& development and organization performance at 0.782 and also that there is a strong relationship between rewards and recognition with organizational performance at 0.811, therefore, employee retention remains one of the biggest challenges for organizations and their leaders. The results of this survey play a crucial role in identifying the key factors that lead to the retention of staff in Higher Learning Institutions (HLIs).

Individual and Organisational Determinants of Work-Life Balance and Quality of Work-Life (Qwl) among Nurses and Pharmacists in Government Hospital

Olusegun Emmanuel Akinwale, Sunday Kobiruo Edegwa, Barbara Aiwanehi Ofuani — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Discovering the right mix between an individual’s work domain and other areas of life’s domain is crucial for nurses and pharmacists to maintain the right frame of mind and enjoy a sustained quality of work-life. This study investigates the determinants of both work-life balance (WLB) and quality of work-life (QWL) among public healthcare facilities and individual employees. The study evaluated this with five hypotheses on longitudinal research design to survey 198 nurses and pharmacists in Federal Medical Center, Ebute Meta, Lagos.

The study utilized a simple random strategy to administer its questionnaires to these participants. The study used a multivariate multiple regression technique to underscore the hypotheses. The study demonstrated that refined workload, opportunity for managing stress, and self-management are predictors of work-life balance germane to nurses and pharmacists in the public healthcare facility. Time management, technology, and change management are organizational factors that predict work-life balance in the Federal Medical Center. While rewards and compensation, nurses' and pharmacists’ development and well-being are individual factors that are critical for elevating their quality of work-life. Organisational support, a healthy work environment, and organizational culture are organizational paradigm shifts that promote quality of work-life from an organizational lens. The study concluded that the management of public hospitals should maintain a reduced workload and work pressure on healthcare employees if robust performance, quality of work-life and patient outcomes are to be achieved among professional healthcare employees.

Exploring the Role of Artificial Intelligence Capabilities on Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Growth in Nigeria

Muktar Itai, Okorie Uchechukwu Emena , Ufua Daniel — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0300

This study examined the relationship between Artificial Intelligence (AI), innovation, employment and growth of SMEs in Nigeria. Principal component analysis (PCA) and the structural equation model (SEM) were used to examine the role of AI on SMEs growth in South West, Nigeria. The population of the study focused on SMEs firms engaging in manufacturing, hospitality, information and communication, and administrative and support services sectors. A sample size of 322 was adopted from Krejcie and Morgan research table of a population size of 2,000. Results of study showed that AI innovation indicators have positive relationship with SMEs growth. It was also observed that AI employment indicators exert a direct relationship with the latent factor. Overall results showed that applications of AI construct indicators remain (direct, indirect and total effect) strong on SMEs growth. Implications of the research results will offer a deeper insight for owners of SMEs, entrepreneurs, academic researchers and stakeholder to promote economic growth and development

Anticipation of ratings during crises and investor behaviour: The case of MENA countries

Noura Mahouachi, Jamel Eddine Henchiri — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0300

The study explores the reaction of stock markets to anticipated or unexpected rating announcements by the market in a crisis context by conducting an empirical study on the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) stock market over the period from December 2010 to August 2022. The results show that the crisis context support the anticipation of bad ratings and neutral ratings as opposed to good ratings. These results validate the asymmetry in investor reaction to announcements of anticipated rating downgrades compared with announcements of upgrades in times of crisis. This reaction highlights the irrational behave of investors in times of crisis. In fact, when investors detect a risk concerning the financial situation of a stock, they anticipate a downgrade and react quickly, even before the official announcement of the downgrade, by selling their shares on masse. This action will cause the share price to fall. Similarly, the market’s weak reaction to early good announcements is explained by the fact that this type of announcement does not provide them with any unknown information to guide their financial decisions.

Effect of Taxpayer’s Attitudes on Tax Evasion among SMEs in Tanzania

James Chindengwike — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Paying taxes is essential to attaining sustainable economic growth and national economic independence, hence tax evasion is a concern for the economies of both wealthy and developing countries. This study examined how tax payer attitudes, particularly in the Singida Tax Region, affect tax evasion in Tanzanian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). This study employed a survey method in which data collection comprised both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. A multiple regression model was employed in combination with a descriptive study approach to ascertain the outcomes. 145 SMEs taxpayers made up the study's as a sample size. The findings demonstrate that, among SMEs in the Singida Region, peer influence, tax awareness, tax morale, and tax evasion have statistically significant relationships with the taxpayer's attitude. This association is supported by statistics. Consequently, the United Republic of Tanzanian government needs to consider how taxpayer attitudes including peer pressure, tax knowledge, and morale affect tax evasion. This will contribute to the goal of reducing tax avoidance by all taxpayers, including SMEs Taxpayers.

The Impact of Financial Technology (Fin Tech) on Economic Growth: Evidence from Tanzania

Raphael Michael Ngeze, Muba Seif — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0300

This research is driven by the rapid spread of fintech, and its contributions to Tanzania’s economic growth. This study uses quantitative quarterly time series data from Tanzania from 2008 to 2022. The Augmented Dicky Fuler (ADF) is used for the stationarity test, Johansen Cointegrations for the hypothesis and Cointegrations test, VAR and VECM for testing both short-run and long-run causality relationships, and Granger Causality for testing variable causality. The Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model is used for parameter estimation, modelling and significance testing. The results show that the model is statistically significant and the independent variables in the regression accounted for around 89% of the overall variation in GDP. Fintech variable subscriptions have a positive impact on Tanzania’s economic growth. Thus, unemployment in Tanzania may be alleviated by the growing sector of financial technology. Fintech has involved many people from all over the world, including Tanzania, and has had a positive impact on both the national economy and per capita growth. Since TTCL and ZANTEL have witnessed a sharp decline in subscriptions, the government, as a fixed-wired broadband service provider, must take the necessary steps to increase the subscriptions.

Key Words: Fintech. Economic Growth. M-Pesa. Tanzania

Is Coffee Cooperatives Performance decided by the Human Capital Proficiency in Ethiopia?

Shashi Kant — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0300

Advancement in revenue generation and growth for a nation is thought to be based on its human capital. As a fastest developing market and fourth largest exporter of coffee Ethiopia is relied on coffee cooperatives as well as its human capital. In a number of empirical researches, the impact of effective utilization of human capital on coffee cooperatives performances taken into account. The existing literature, especially when using the SEM model, has largely stressed on the impact of optimization of coffee cooperatives performance in human capital context and Ethiopia coffee markets. This work employs the generalized EFA, CFA, and SEM methodologies. The empirical findings in this research cooperatively establish the association among human capital expertise and coffee cooperatives performance in Ethiopia. In addition, the data in this study disproves the usual belief that human capital accumulation in coffee cooperatives has decreased. It was founded by SEM, when the human capital grows by one standard deviation while the other independent variables remain constant; the coffee cooperative performance often increases by a 70.3%. Therefore study recommended for the policy makers to emphases more on human capital development to enhance the coffee cooperatives performance.