Entrepreneurship and Finance

High cost of borrowing has been a suffering to individual and organizations in Ghana who have been raising concerns on the reluctance of commercial banking institutions to lower their lending rates upon decrease in Central bank"s Policy rate. Lending rates are set as a premium over the cost of borrowing from the central bank, with the premium itself depending on firms" net worth

Efficient provision of utility services are of strategic importance to the development and growth of every economy as their development is a prerequisite for carrying out large industrial, commercial, agricultural and environmental programmes. As a strategic input, utility supplies must be regular, adequate and reliable. An improvement in water supply and sanitation can result in good health of the people as well as economic and community development. In spite of the efforts being made by utility companies towards economic development by ensuring that constant supply is guaranteed, there have been frequent supply failures and inadequate supplies in the country in recent times. An improvement in water supply and sanitation can result in good health of the people as well as economic and community development. The major thrust of this study was to examine the operational efficiency of these utility companies with specific reference to Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL). This company was purposefully selected because of its strategic importance as water is one of the basic necessities of life and essential to human health, a foundation for development and protection of environment and water resources. A well-structured questionnaire was used to elicit data from three operational areas of Ghana Water Company Limited namely Accra, Tema and Kumasi, between 1996 and 2000 and responses on Socio-economic characteristics and other relevant variables from corporate consumers. A t-test statistics (t) at 99.9 percent confidence level was calculated which the result was greater than the critical value of 5.041. The result showed that 46.7% of treated water produced is considered as non revenue water (gone waste after production) which GWCL lost revenue. The study finds that GWCL was inefficiently operated during the period under review. GWCL are therefore urged to reduce the quantity of water unaccounted for, improve in their billing and metering system as well as revenue collection, improve upon their record keeping, reduce cost of production and monitor their distribution lines to prevent illegal connection.

In retail banking, quality of service plays a vital role in the context of sustained business survival and growth. The relationship between a bank and its customers must be a permanent and lasting one, which needs to be maintained with good quality services. An attempt has been made to ascertain the level of satisfaction of customers with regards to banking services in Kumasi metropolis in Ghana. This study assesses customer satisfaction of service quality and determines whether services provided by the selected private banks are acceptable to Ghanaian customers based on various levels of customer opinion regarding service quality. The methodology is based on primary data collected through a well-structured questionnaire administered on a sample size of 140respondents randomly selected from Ghanaian private banks. In order to assess the customer satisfaction in relation to the quality of service, five attributes were used to create a better understanding of the relationship between the attributes and customer satisfaction, by focusing on the retail banking industry in Ghana. The study respondents are accounts holders of the selected banks in Ghana.

THE STUDY INVESTIGATED THE RETENTION STRATEGIES OF BARCLAYS BANK GHANA. SPECIFICALLY, THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY IS TO MEASURE HE AVAILABLE RETENTION STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY BARCLAS BANK GHANA IN THEIR TALENT MANAGEMENT, SATISFACTION TOWARDS THE IDENTIFIED RETENTION STRATEGIES AND FINALLY TO INVESTIGATE THE RELATIONSHIP THAT EXIST BETWEEN THE  BANK'S RETENTION STRATEGIES AND EMPLOYEE RETENTION INTENTION. THE STUDY POPULATION WAS CHOSEN FROM BARCLAYS BANK EMPLOYEES WORKING WITHIN THE BRANCHES OF TANOSO,TAFO,KROFROM,CENTRAL MARKET,MANHYIA,ASHANTI NEWTOWN,AHODWO, ADUM,  SUAME AND BANTAMA ALL WITHIN THE KUMASI METROPOLIS. THE STUDY EMPLOYED PROBABILITY SAMPLING SPECIFICALLY SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING TO SELECT THE STUDY PARTICIPANTS. KREJCIE AND MORGAN(1970) SAMPLING TABLE WAS USED TO DETERMINE THE SAMPLE SIZE FOR THE 500 POPULATION SIZE.
BASED ON THE TABLE, THE SAMPLE SIZE FOR THE STUDY WAS 217 BASED ON A 95 PERCENT CONFIDENCE LEVEL AND 5 PERCENT ERROR OF MARGIN. QUESTIONNAIRE INSTRUMENT WAS THE MAIN DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT USED TO ELICIT RESPONSES FROM THE STUDY PARTICIPANTS. A TOTAL OF 217 QUESTIONNAIRES WERE DISTRIBUTED TO THE SELECTED SAMPLES WITHIN THESE IDENTIFIED BRANCHES. FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES DISTRIBUTED, A TOTAL OF 120 COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRES WERE RETURNED. 106 WERE USABLE FOR ANALYSIS, GIVING AN EFFECTIVE RESPONSE RATE OF 52.2%.
DATA WAS SUBSEQUENTLY ANALYZED USING DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS SUCH AS MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION. INFERENTIAL STATISTICS SUCH AS MULTIPLE REGRESSION Analyses was used to analyzed the data. findings from this study revealed that, the respondents satisfaction towards their organization retention strategies were largely influenced by how these retention strategies were implemented or the intention behind these retention strategies. the study recommended to the management of the Bank to always seek to ensure fairness.

THE STUDY INVESTIGATED THE RETENTION STRATEGIES OF BARCLAYS BANK GHANA. SPECIFICALLY, THE OBJECTIVES  OF THIS STUDY IS TO MEASURE THE AVAILABLE RETENTION STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY BARCLAYS BANK GHANA IN THEIR TALENT MANAGEMENT, SATISFACTION TOWARDS THE IDENTIFIED RETENTION STRATEGIES AND FINALLY TO INVESTIGATE THE RELATIONSHIP THAT EXIT BETWEEN THE BANK'S RETENTION STRATEGIES AND EMPLOYEE RETENTION INTENTION.THE STUDY POPULATION WAS CHOSEN FROM BARCLAYS BANK EMPLOYEES WORKING WITHIN THE BRANCHES OF TANOSO, TAFO,KROFROM, CENTRAL MARKET,MANHYIA,ASHANTI NEW TOWN , AHODWO,ADUM , SUAME AND BANTAMA ALL WITHIN THE KUMASI METROPOLIS. THE STUDY EMPLOYED PROBABILITY SAMPLING SPECIFICALLY SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING TO SELECT THE STUDY PARTICIPANTS. Krejcie AND Morgan(1970) SAMPLING TABLE WAS USED TO DETERMINE THE SAMPLE SIZE FOR THE 500 POPULATION SIZE. BASED ON THE TABLE,HE SAMPLE SIZE FOR THE STUDY WAS 217 BASED ON A 95 PERCENT CONFIDENCE LEVEL AND 5 PERCENT ERROR OF MARGIN. QUESTIONNAIRE INSTRUMENT WAS THE MAIN DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT USED TO ELICIT RESPONSES FROM THE STUDY PARTICIPANTS. A TOTAL OF 217 QUESTIONNAIRE WERE DISTRIBUTED TO THE SELECTED SAMPLES WITHIN THESE IDENTIFIED BRANCHES. FROM THE QUESTION ARES DISTRIBUTED, A TOTAL OF 120 COMPLETED QUESTIONNAIRES WERE RETURNED. 106 WERE USABLE FOR ANALYSIS, GIVING AN EFFECTIVE RESPONSE RATE OF 52.2%  .DATA WAS SUBSEQUENTLY ANALYZED USING DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS SUCH AS MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION. INFERENTIAL STATISTICS SUCH AS MULTIPLE REGRESSION WAS USED TO ANALYZED THE DATA. FINDINGS FROM THIS STUDY REVEALED THAT, THE RESPONDENTS SATISFACTION TOWARDS THEIR ORGANIZATION RETENTION STRATEGIES WERE LARGELY INFLUENCED BY HOW THESE RETENTION STRATEGIES WERE IMPLEMENTED OR THE INTENTION BEHIND THESE RETENTION STRATEGIES. THE STUDY RECOMMENDED TO THE MANAGEMENT OF THE BANK TO ALWAYS SEEK TO ENSURE FAIRNESS.