The indiscriminate consumption patterns worldwide have brought in its wake severe problems like pollution and global warming, and this has ultimately called for green products awareness and consumption. The main purpose of this study was to assess the effect of university students’ awareness of green products on their green purchasing intentions. The specific objectives were to identify whether awareness, price, availability, value and quality influence university students’ intention to purchase green products, and to investigate how awareness, price, availability, value and quality predict university students’ intention to purchase green products. A structural equation modeling was used to analyze data collected from an online survey of 478 students. Results show that green perceived quality has the utmost significant positive impact on university students’ green purchase intentions; however, green perceived availability had the slightest impact on university students’ intention to purchase green products. The study is the foremost to conclude that green product awareness impact on university students green purchase intentions is greatly driven by price, high value and extraordinary quality. However, availability is not a critical influencing factor when it comes to green purchase intentions of university students. The implications of study, limitations and further research are discussed.

Even though the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been applauded for several decades, the concept of stakeholder engagement is relatively new to the Ghanaian mining sector. This study investigates the CSR process of an extractive company and examines how stakeholders are engaged in CSR. Using purposive and snowball sampling in identifying its respondents, data was gathered through interviewing 21 selected respondents from various stakeholder groups and documents such as sustainability annual reports were analyzed. It was discovered that Newmont Ahafo Mines has consistently had a prominent CSR drive in Ghana for several years and stakeholder involvement in CSR is important for implementing relevant CSR programs. Findings of this study contribute to the building of empirical reference which will serve as guidelines for management practitioners dealing with stakeholder relations and CSR in Ghana’s mining sector. Therefore, it is recommended that the mining sector put immense effort in engaging various stakeholders in their CSR initiatives.

Background: The world aims to achieve universal health coverage by removing all forms of financial barriers to improve access to healthcare as well as reduce maternal and child deaths by 2030. Although free maternal healthcare has been embraced as a major intervention towards this course in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the perception of the quality of healthcare may influence utilization and maternal health outcomes. We systematically mapped literature and described the evidence on maternal perceptions of the quality of care under the free care financing policies in SSA. Methods: We employed the Arskey and O’Malley’s framework to guide this scoping review. We searched without date limitations to 19th May 2019 for relevant published articles in PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Science Direct, and CINAHL using a combination of keywords, Boolean terms, and medical subject headings. We included primary studies that involved pregnant/post-natal mothers, free maternal care policy, quality of care, and was conduct in an SSA country. Two reviewers independently screened the articles at the abstract and full-text screening guided by inclusion and exclusion criteria. All relevant data were extracted and organized into themes and a summary of the results reported narratively. The recent version of the mixed methods appraisal tool was used to assess the methodological quality of the included studies. Results: Out of 390 studies, 13 were identified to have evidence of free maternal healthcare and client perceived quality of care. All the 13 studies were conducted in 7 different countries. We found three studies each from Ghana and Kenya, two each in Burkina Faso and Nigeria, and a study each from Niger, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania. Of the 13 included studies, eight reported that pregnant women perceived the quality of care under the free maternal healthcare policy to be poor. The following reasons accounted for the poor perception of service quality: long waiting time, ill-attitudes of providers, inadequate supply of essential drugs and lack of potable water, unequal distribution of skilled birth attendants, out-of-pocket payment and weak patient complaint system. Conclusion: This study suggests few papers exist that looked at maternal perceptions of the quality of care in the free care policy in SSA. Considering the influence mothers perceptions of the quality of care can have on future health service utilisation, further studies at the household, community, and health facility levels are needed to help unearth and address all hidden quality of care challenges and improve maternal health services towards attaining the sustainable development goals on maternal and child health.

Access to electricity is touted as one of the ways of reducing poverty and improving the livelihoods of people. However, an increased consumption may also contribute to higher carbon dioxide emissions. While many studies have therefore assessed the determinants of electricity consumption for developing countries that have a lower electricity consumption and inadequate supply to meet demand, the effect of financial development on electricity consumption has been mixed. Consequently, this study models electricity consumption in Ghana with special attention on the effect of financial development. The results show that price reduces electricity consumption while income and population density increase consumption of electricity. When financial development is represented by domestic credit to private sector, domestic credit to private sector by banks and broad money supply, the effect is negative on electricity consumption. However, the effect is positive when financial development is represented by foreign direct investment. A financial index constructed from the four indicators shows financial development reduces electricity consumption in Ghana. Among other things the policy implication includes the need to formulate appropriate policy based on a specific indicator for financial development.