The impact of the interaction of governance and information and communication technologies (ICT) adoption on food security in West Africa is investigated in this study. The study engaged the system generalised method of moments (GMM) approach on a panel data of 15 West African countries. The data used for the study are obtained from the world development indicators (WDI) and world governance indicators (WGI), for the period 2005 to 2018. The findings show that good governance (government effectiveness and efficient anti-corruption control) can boost food security by between 12% and 20%. Furthermore, the findings show that a 1% rise in ICT adoption may boost food security by 12% to 15%. In explaining the level of food security, the relationship between governance and ICT adoption is positive and significant. This implies that ICT and governance (government effectiveness) interaction may have about 15% positive influence on food security, while ICT and control of corruption interaction may positively influence the level of food security by 8%. The study concludes by recommending that to enhance food security in West Africa, effectiveness in governance and ICT adoption are crucial.

Purpose: Personal financial stress-free living is desired by many, which dwells on sound financial literacy (including financial behaviour, financial knowledge and financial attitude). Many individuals do not make optimal savings and investment decisions. The realisation that these choices may well lead to low living standards has also increased economic anxiety, especially in Sub-Sahara African countries, including Ghana. Thus, this study underscores the link between financial literacy and financial distress in Ghana. It establishes whether persons that are financially literate escape financial distress in their life.Design/methodology/approach: The paper engages nationally representative survey data and adopts a positivist research approach with logistic regression analysis to establish the likelihood of financial literate persons experiencing financial distress.Findings: This study establishes that financially literate individuals are 2.4% less likely to experience financial distress. Socioeconomic characteristics greatly influence the probability of one experiencing financial hardship. It submits that policy can be directed towards improving financial habits (financial literacy) to enhance individuals' financial behaviour to lessen personal financial distress.Originality/value: Not much attention has been paid to whether financial literacy has a nexus with financial distress. Few studies (not on Sub-Saharan Africa) that have looked at this are done, neglecting a sensitivity analysis of socioeconomic characteristics in establishing the relations. However, this current study dwells on econometric analysis to establish the margin or extend to which a financially literate person may or may not escape financial distress given his/her socioeconomic characteristics.

The study looks at the determinants of household energy consumption and how that relates to general poverty and energy poverty. It extends the Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index (MEPI) by estimating the rural-urban differentials in MEPI. The study employed multinomial logistic regression on household adoption of energy for cooking and lighting. The Ghana Demographic and Health Survey—GDHS 2014 data were used for the regression and three waves (2003, 2008 and 2014) of the data were used to estimate the MEPI as well as the rural-urban contributions to the MEPI over time. The paper provides empirical insights that household energy consumption is affected by socioeconomic variables and rural households are more deprived than urban households in terms of access to and use of modern energy. The most popular energy for cooking is wood and main electricity is the most popular energy for lighting. The wealth status of household, nature of residence (rural or urban) and the size of the household are key socioeconomic variables that affect energy consumption. An estimation of the MEPI showed that it has been declining from a severely deprived energy poverty rate in 2003 to a moderately deprived energy poverty rate in 2014. Also, rural homes (57%) are more energy poor than urban (43%) households. The study includes implications for the provision of clean and better energy sources for household consumption policies. This study fulfills an identified need to look at general poverty in relation to energy poverty and to look at the rural-urban differentials in energy consumption.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyse the extent to which households are deprived (or otherwise) of clean energy sources in Ghana.Design/methodology/approach: It engages the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey data. Three different energy deprivation indicators were estimated: cooking fuel deprivation, lighting deprivation and indoor air pollution. The empirical evidence is based on logit regressions that explain whether households are deprived or not.Findings: The results show that energy deprivation or access is contingent on the area of residence. Energy access and deprivation in Ghana show some regional disparities, even though across every region, the majority of households use three fuel types: liquefied petroleum gas, charcoal and wood cut. Increases in wealth and education lead to reduction in the likelihood of being energy deprived. Thus, efforts should be geared towards policies that will ensure households having access to clean fuels to reduce the attendant deprivations and corresponding effects of using dangerous or dirty fuels.Originality/value: This study complements the extant literature by analysing the extent to which households are deprived (or otherwise) of clean energy sources in Ghana.