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.
Maternal health has been an issue of priority to nations across the globe for years now. This study sought to: identify the sources of maternal health awareness; examine means of obtaining maternal health information; determine the frequency of mass media exposure; and analyse the influence of mass media exposure on maternal health awareness among the female residents. The Agenda-setting theory and the descriptive (survey) research design, using the questionnaire as the research instrument, were utilized in this study. For this study, the purposive and haphazard sampling techniques were used. The internet (49%) was the topmost source of maternal health awareness; adverts/campaigns (30.6%) were the most common means of obtaining maternal health information; once in a month [27.6%] was the exposure frequency of most participants to the mass media while the least exposure frequency was once in two weeks [5.1%]. It was discovered that mass media exposure had a significant influence on maternal health awareness. Given a number of factors noted to challenge people’s access to communication interventions in Nigeria, the study recommends that the goal of increasing the level of maternal health awareness needs to be matched with action thereby influencing the adoption of intervention measures aimed at reducing the rate of maternal mortality to the barest minimum.