Papers by Millicent Agangiba
International Journal of E-Services and Mobile Applications
Although information technology has positively influenced operations in the Ghanaian financial se... more Although information technology has positively influenced operations in the Ghanaian financial sector, there is still a high operational cost in performing KYC procedures due to duplication of efforts during clients' onboarding. The decentralized nature of blockchains makes them ideal for addressing these challenges. In this paper, the blockchain maturity model was used to assess the maturity and readiness of Ghanaian banks to adopt blockchain technology for KYC processes. Using primary data obtained via questionnaires and interviews, the individual components of the blockchain maturity model were assessed. The results indicate that the network, hardware, and software components are at repeatable, defined, and managed stages, respectively, while the people component lags in the initial stage due to a lack of adequate staff training. Finally, security and privacy are at the defined stage, whereas policy and regulations are at the initial stage.
International Journal of Computer Applications
Communication is an important tool for sharing one's ideas and thoughts and as such its role in o... more Communication is an important tool for sharing one's ideas and thoughts and as such its role in our everyday lives cannot be over emphasised. Sign language is a form of communication used by the deaf and those hard-of-hearing. However, a challenge arises when deaf people have to communicate their ideas to those in the mainstream population. An automatic translator can be an effective way to address this problem. In this study, the performance of the ResNet model and its variants are evaluated on two different datasets. The first dataset contains images of American Sign language (ASL) data and the second dataset consists of images of Indian Sign language (ISL). The is a one-handed sign language, while ISL is mainly a two-handed sign language with complex shapes. ResNet variants such as Resnet18, ResNet34, ResNet50, ResNet101 and ResNet152 have been tested on these standard datasets. We conducted experiments by using deep neural networks to make recommendations and predictions in sign language. Experimental results using a standard dataset demonstrate that the model with 152 layers achieves the highest accuracy.
arXiv (Cornell University), Nov 22, 2021
Identification of minerals in the field is a task that is wrought with many challenges. Tradition... more Identification of minerals in the field is a task that is wrought with many challenges. Traditional approaches are prone to errors where there is no enough experience and expertise. Several existing techniques mainly make use of features of the minerals under a microscope and tend to favour a manual feature extraction pipeline. Deep learning methods can help overcome some of these hurdles and provide simple and effective ways to identify minerals. In this paper, we present an algorithm for identifying minerals from hand specimen images. Using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), we develop a single-label image classification model to identify and categorise seven classes of minerals. Experiments conducted using real-world datasets show that the model achieves an accuracy of 90.75%
International journal of computer applications, May 20, 2022
One common challenge that comes with postgraduate studies is the fact that students usually have ... more One common challenge that comes with postgraduate studies is the fact that students usually have to combine studies with family, job and other personal and professional endeavours. Despite these challenges, the number of postgraduate students has seen massive increase in recent times as a result of job competitiveness and the need for knowledge creation. To cope with the large numbers in postgraduate supervision and to provide flexibility for the working class to acquire higher degrees, online postgraduate supervision has become common. However, research shows that several challenges confront virtual supervision for both the supervisor and the supervisee which include the feeling of isolation and attrition. This paper examines the challenges associated with technologies such as Virtual Learning Platforms (VLPs) for postgraduate supervision and proposes a computational technique for assessing key attributes of VLPs. A survey among 160 postgraduate students shows that students combine a variety of VLPs for communicating with their supervisors for reasons such as cost-effectiveness, technical-know-how and availability of means. The results reveal amalgamated factors that influence the choice of technologies used by supervisors and students. The findings further indicate that user-friendliness, attractiveness, transparency, interactivity and support are reasons why postgraduate students in Ghana mostly prefer social media platforms such as WhatsApp in interacting with their supervisors.
Faculty of Commerce, 2020
This acceptance by the academic community has provided guidance and motivation to the production ... more This acceptance by the academic community has provided guidance and motivation to the production of this thesis. Portions of the published works have been synthesised into this thesis. viii Dr Yakubu, Professor Anthony Simons and Professor Richard Amankwah for their inspirations throughout this PhD journey. To my amazing friends whose support chats, jokes, outings and fun made my journey an interesting one; I say thank you and God bless you all.
Content-Based Image Retrieval Framework for Classification of Cocoa Beans
2021 IEEE 8th International Conference on Adaptive Science and Technology (ICAST), 2021
Companies that process cocoa into chocolates and other cocoa products want fully fermented beans.... more Companies that process cocoa into chocolates and other cocoa products want fully fermented beans. Fermented beans are of excellent flavour and brownish, while other bean classes do not meet this standard. Apart from using chemically-based methods to evaluate the quality of cocoa beans, visual inspections are widely used at the primary level and have been successfully used to classify beans. The challenge of this method is that it is usually done by humans, which sometimes leads to the misclassification of beans. Computer vision has been proposed for the inspection of beans with an acceptable degree of performance. However, most machine learning-based approaches present models that make it impossible for users to inspect beans that influence machines’ decisions and provide proper feedback to improve performance. This paper proposes a Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) framework that can classify and display beans from the database that influences the classification decision. The framework was able to predict with 100% accuracy as Support Vector Machine (SVM). The performance of the framework stood superior to Naive Bayes (NB), Decision Tree (DT) and Discriminant Analysis Classifier (DAC). In addition, it offers users opportunities to see images that are helpful to decision making..
A Survey of Real-Time Fault-Detection Schemes in Mobile Computing
The recent past two decades have witnessed a phenomenal technological and architectural evolution... more The recent past two decades have witnessed a phenomenal technological and architectural evolution in wireless communication. However, the development has also created certain challenges under resolution, one of which is fault detection in Mobile Computing. Wireless protocols must have the ability to detect faults in the mobile computing environment and respond in real-time. Inability of wireless protocols to det ect and respond to faults in real -time impacts quality of service and can lead to consequential financial loss. E fficient and quick response to faults in the long run affects the overall system performance. An appropriate detector of factors leading to fau lt can avoid degraded quality-of-service. Real-time fault detection in mobile computing enables the system to respond to fault indicating situations within certain time constraints. This paper surveys the literature on fault detection and tolerance schemes used in mobile networks. Our survey reveals that, most of the cur...
Globally, the use of web-based resources has increased tremendously among Higher Education Instit... more Globally, the use of web-based resources has increased tremendously among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Most HEIs have websites which serve as a virtual gateway to accessing information and services for students. As a result, the demand for website accessibility in HEIs continues to upsurge. The accessibility of a website means that everyone regardless of disabilities can perceive, understand and interact with the website. While web-based resources of HEIs offer convenience for most students; those with disabilities risk being excluded particularly the visually impaired who use assistive technologies if websites are not designed to be technically accessible. Yet web accessibility is under-explored in Ghana. In this study, we evaluate the accessibility of 15 HEIs’ websites in Ghana to determine their adherence to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The findings show that none of the websites examined conform t...
E-government has increasingly been adopted globally by governments in order to enhance the provis... more E-government has increasingly been adopted globally by governments in order to enhance the provision of services to citizens and promote inclusive governance. It is perceived that E-government has the potential to significantly improve government-citizen interaction by providing equal access to government services for all citizens. Lack of equal access to E-government services has emerged as one major setback of E-government in achieving its objectives. Studies in E-government have documented how E-government can act as a tool for exclusion particularly for persons with disabilities (PWDs) an already marginalized group if accessibility barriers are not addressed. Developing countries however, have received little attention in this regard which calls for a greater concern; since 80% of the world’s disabled population reside here. Few studies that have been conducted in the developing countries fail to integrate PWDs into the digital society. This calls for the need to examine how res...
Web Accessibility for the Visually Impaired: A Case of Higher Education Institutions' Websites in Ghana
Globally, the use of web-based resources has increased tremendously among Higher Education Instit... more Globally, the use of web-based resources has increased tremendously among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This move has made access to information more convenient and easy for most students. However, while providing this benefit, some students may be excluded because they cannot use standard modes of access. Students with disabilities are most at risk of being excluded from access, particularly those who are visually impaired and use assistive technologies such as screen magnifiers and screen readers. Websites of education institutions serve as virtual gateway to access immediate information for students and should therefore be accessible. Yet, web accessibility is under-explored in Ghana. In this study, we evaluate based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0); the accessibility of some HEIs’ websites in Ghana using diagnostic automatic tool. The findings show that most HEIs websites failed to comply with perceivable and operable principles of WCAG 2.0. The stu...
Most governments around the world are fast advancing in the provision of services to their citize... more Most governments around the world are fast advancing in the provision of services to their citizens through the web. However, developing countries still lag behind in the adoption and use of ICTs in government for inclusive purposes, specifically for persons with disabilities (PWDs) who tend to be side-lined from the population mainstream. Studies focusing on E-government accessibility for PWDs have been minimal from the developing countries context; and this is despite the fact that over eighty percent of the over one billion populations living with disabilities worldwide reside in the developing countries. For E-government to achieve its purpose of providing fast and efficient services to citizens, there is the need to adopt a context-oriented approach. Against this background, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for improving E-government accessibility for PWDs in the developing countries context. Through a systematic synthesis of the literature on E-government accessibili...
Mobile Solution for Metropolitan Crime Detection and Reporting
The proliferation of computational capabilities of mobile handheld devices has made them a viable... more The proliferation of computational capabilities of mobile handheld devices has made them a viable medium for carrying out a wide range of activities, involving information exchange. One new area where mobile technology is gaining great usefulness in society is crime detection and reporting. One major problem hindering crime detection and reporting is lack of efficient communication platform between the police and the general public: the general public and the police lack a common platform for exchanging real time information about criminal activities, crime suspects and those under investigation for various crimes in the society. Lack of readily accessible information of crime trends in major towns and cities is also a key setback to public security needs. In this paper, a mobile infrastructure for detecting, reporting and tracking down criminal perpetrators using a mobile device is proposed. This is based on the client-server architecture; allowing users (the general public) to exc...
For several decades, HIV/AIDS has been an important concern to key international and intergovernm... more For several decades, HIV/AIDS has been an important concern to key international and intergovernmental organisations and a subject of many academic research efforts. Since its emergence in the early 1980s, the devastating effects of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on human life across the world cannot be overemphasised. In the academic front, many researchers have identified important socio-economic drivers of the pandemic, particularly, in sub-Saharan Africa which is the most hard-hit. Some of the socio-economic drivers identified include educational level, marital status and occupation. However, beyond the identification of these factors, not much effort has been made to assess their degree of impact on the lives of a given population. This paper contributes to fill this gap in literature. Assessing the degree of impact of such factors in numerical measures is imperative not only to compare the extent of the impact of individual factors but more importantly to facilitate the development of ...
Experiences of Persons with Disabilities in Accessing E-Government Services in Ghana
One of the objectives of E-government is to foster citizen participation in government-related ac... more One of the objectives of E-government is to foster citizen participation in government-related activities and services. For this to happen, accessibility of these E-government services is crucial for all citizens, more specifically for persons with disabilities (PWD). While several studies have evaluated the accessibility of E-government services to PWD, most fall short on providing empirical and contextspecific experiences from the perspective of PWD. The purpose of the study is to examine the experiences of the visually impaired in accessing E-government services in Ghana so as to inform political leadership and societal decisions towards improving inclusivity and accessibility of E-government services for PWD. Based on the interviews carried out with 18 visually impaired, seven overarching themes were identified, categorised into the three dimensions of socio-political, technological and contextual respectively. Given that few studies have examined accessibility from the perspect...
Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management, 2017
Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the key research foci, methodologies, and th... more Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the key research foci, methodologies, and theoretical perspectives adopted by researchers when studying E-government accessibility for persons with disabilities (PWDs), particularly in developing countries. The study aims to develop a conceptual framework for designing accessible E-government for PWDs in developing countries. Background: Studies on E-government accessibility for persons with disabilities in developing countries have been minimal. The few studies conducted until now have failed to integrate PWDs, a population already marginalized, into the digital society. Accessibility has been identified by researchers as a major hindrance to PWDs participating in E-government. It is imperative therefore to examine the manner in which researchers investigate and acquire knowledge about this phenomenon. Methodology : The study synthesizes literature from top IS journals following a systematic literature review approach. The data s...
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 2013
Information and Communication Technology today has become an indispensable part in our lives, gai... more Information and Communication Technology today has become an indispensable part in our lives, gaining wide application in human activities. This is due to the fact that, its use is less expensive, more secure, and allows speedy information transmission and access. It serves as a good base for the development and success of today's relatively young technologies. It has relieved people of manual day-today activities in such areas as businesses organizations, transport industry, teaching and research, banking, broadcasting, entertainment amongst other. This paper takes an overview study of e-governance, one of the most demanding applications of information and communication technology for public services. The paper summarizes the concept of e-governance, its major essence and some ongoing e-governance activities in some parts of the world.
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Papers by Millicent Agangiba