Fiscal decentrialisation and challenges of property tax mobilization: A case study of Bolgatanga Municipality (Published)

Decentralised municipal and district assemblies of Ghana have over the years usually not been able to wield the necessary financial muscle to provide essential goods and services for their constituents. Fiscal decentralization gives authority to the assemblies to impose taxes and levies in order to strengthen their financial base and to discharge their responsibilities efficiently and effectively. Yet, decentralized local governments have not been able to realize their tax targets through property tax. This paper seeks to investigate the key issues and challenges that confront the Bolgatanga Municipality Assembly in meeting its property tax revenue collection targets to finance social services such as roads, sanitation, health and electricity.  The purposiv e sampling method was used to select staff from th e Bolgatanga Municipal Ass embly, Lands Commission, rev enu e collectors and prop erty own ers. The results revealed a number of factors underpinning the Assembly’s ability to raise property tax revenue notable among which are failure to update valuation rolls, inadequate databases and logistics, fraudulent practices of revenue collectors, limited capacity, inadequate valuation practices poorly motivated staff, political interference.inadequate and inaccurate public address system and house numbers and the Assembly’s inability to prepare and maintain complete records on property rat e.To the management of the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly, the study recommends mass public education on property revenue taxation, improve upon the preparation and maintenance of complete records, Prevent or minimize the incidence of revenue leakages, motivate employee to enable them carry out their duties diligently and honestly without thinking of ways to steal the organization, enhancing the capacity staff in rating valuation, protection of property taxation from political interference, enforcement of law against non-compliance, enforcement of legal action against defaulters, adjusting property taxes according to “ability to pay” as well as some exemption to the extremely poor rural dwellers

 

Keywords: Bolgatanga municipality, Challenges, fiscal decentrialisation, property tax mobilization

Challenges in Developing Indigenous Management Theories in Africa and the Implications for Management Practice (Published)

The paper examines the challenges against developing indigenous management theories in Africa and the implications for management practice in Africa. The paper recognizes that there is a dearth of African indigenous management theories, and attributes the situation to both economic and socio-cultural factors in Africa. It notes that the inability to develop indigenous management theories has caused indiscriminate importation of western theories for adoption in Africa, and this has huge negative impact on management practice in Africa. The paper posits that the uncritical adoption of western theories is a major reason for ineffective management practice in Africa and the poor performance of industries in the continent. It therefore calls on stakeholders to look away from foreign based theories and chart a way towards developing indigenous theories that account for African peculiarities, and encourage the application of such theories. It recommends that concerted efforts be made to overcome the challenges bedeviling the development of African indigenous management theories by committing to new ways of thinking and orientation about research and theories, and overhauling African value system towards supporting research leading to development of theories.

Keywords: Africa, Challenges, Implications, Indigenous, Management Practice, Management Theory

Challenges of Celebrity Endorsement and How They Affect the Diffusion Process (Published)

Celebrity endorsement (CE) has been successful as one of the Marketing Communications tools and has attained such popularity but abound extant literature and various research works have not consider challenges Corporate Organizations are confronted with in their business endeavor by engaging Celebrities to endorse the organization’s brands. It is believed that in every endeavor there are few challenges that are set to militate against whatever good intentions or objectives that venture might have.  This paper therefore, focus is on findings from a research project that reflected upon the challenges of Celebrity endorsement (CE) and how they have affected diffusion. CE was applied to capture Customers and Business Executives experiences on using Celebrity Endorsers which provided a basis for observation and reflection. The research adopted both quantitative and qualitative methodology. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. The study surveyed 30 Business Executives. The outcome of the study has proved that despite the enormous feat chalked by CE successes and its popularity attained factors such as Management, Publicity, Contract, Customer match-up and Competition were identified to be the challenging factors that have been drawbacks inhibiting Celebrity endorsements.

Keywords: Ad, Celebrity, Challenges, Diffusion, Endorsement, Factors

Techniques for Re-Positioning Small and Medium Scale Business Enterprises in Nigeria for Economy Revitalization (Published)

This paper highlighted techniques for re-positioning small and medium scale business enterprises in Nigeria for economy revitalization. Small and medium business enterprises are the engine of growth and development of a nation. SMEs contribute to industrial development; promote growth, technological acquisition and reduction of unemployment. The paper also highlights techniques for re-positioning Small and Medium Scale business enterprises in Nigeria for economy revitalization. Financial problems, inadequate basic infrastructure, socio-cultural problems, planning problems, location/economic problems, poor accounting system:  multiple taxation and unstable policy environment are the major problems militating against the success of SMEs. It was recommended among others that there should be a practical effort in encouraging SMEs to access long-term, low rate funds from the capital market. Incentives should be given in the form of tax holidays and awards to SMEs that excel in using the capital market as an avenue of external funding and the government should continue to make SMEs a central focus of industrial policy in order to achieve economic growth and development. The monetary and fiscal policies should be made to incorporate good framework that would enhance the activities of SMEs towards development and sustenance.

Keywords: Challenges, Economy, Enterprise, Re-positioning, Small and Medium, Strategies.

DRIVING ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION IN NIGERIA: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES (Published)

The objective of this paper is to discuss issues and challenges driving entrepreneurship education in Nigeria. Since entrepreneurship education remain vital in the real sector and the sustenance of economic development, it has become necessary for Nigerian Government to pay attention to this sector. This paper, therefore, argues that entrepreneurship education will equip the unemployed youths with the skills with which to be self-reliant. Also, the paper recommended that educational programmes at all levels of education should be made relevant to provide the youths the needed entrepreneurial skills. It also recommended that the Nigerian Government should give adequate attention to full blown entrepreneurial education in Nigeria.

Keywords: Challenges, Education, Entrepreneurship, Issues, Strategies.