ABSTRACT Derivatives have been in the use by firms for the longest period. Some firms use them for trading or speculation purposes while others use them purely for hedging purposes. Despite the usage of derivatives by non-financial firms, their performance has been varying. In Kenya, listed non-financial firms use derivatives for hedging purposes while financial firms use derivatives for both speculation and hedging purposes. Contrary to the greater growth opportunities and tighter controls ...
ABSTRACT Over time globalization has created investment opportunities for enterprise worldwide and as a result today foreign direct investment is regarded as the major source of foreign capital for developing countries. There are numerous benefits of foreign direct investment for emerging economies which include technology spillovers, enables human capital formation, improvement of international trade integration, helps create a more competitive business environment and improves enterprise d...
ABSTRACT This study provides a critical review of the effects of political risk and macroeconomic factors on stock market performance in Kenya. The study was undertaken due to the country’s increasingly volatile political environment following the 2007/2008 political violence that rocked the country as a result of the fiercely contested presidential elections in addition to the erratic movement in key macroeconomic variables in the Kenyan economy. Unlike previous studies that analysed the i...
ABSTRACT Dividend policy is a widely researched topic in the field of corporate finance; however, it still remains a mystery as to whether dividend policy affects the share prices of quoted firms. During the period under review (2001-2011), share prices of listed firms in the Nairobi Securities Exchange severely fluctuated making it difficult for investors to make informed investment decisions. The general objective of this study was to investigate the effect of dividend policy (cash and sha...
ABSTRACT Despite the stock markets’ pivotal role towards economic growth, stock market development in Kenya and its contribution to economic growth is still an issue of great concern to policy makers and scholars. The Kenyan stock market is characterized by a small number of listing, lack of sophisticated infrastructure, narrow range of tradable instruments and very low liquidity. Moreover, the market is highly volatile as evidenced by high volatility in key market indicators during the pe...
ABSTRACT Financial inclusion is the provision of financial services at affordable costs to sections of underprivileged and low-income segments of society, in contrast to financial exclusion where those services are not available or affordable. Failure to constantly redesign strategies that help the commercial banks adapt to changing business environment may lead to a strategic mismatch between what they offer and what markets demands. The objective was to study Technological Banking Innovati...
ABSTRACT This thesis focused on factors affecting diffusion and impact of internet banking. It was based on the theory that when a cost-saving innovation, such as internet banking, is initially introduced, large banks have an advantage to adopt it first and enjoy further growth in size. Over time, due to environmental changes (demand change, technology progress and banking deregulation); the innovation diffuses into smaller banks. As a result, the aggregate bank size distribution increases s...
ABSTRACT The commercial banks in Kenya have witnessed a general decline in their profitability over the years occasioned by the global financial crisis of 2008 which ravaged the banking sector. Financial performance of Kenyan banks has since declined from 4.43% in 2010 to 2.8% in 2018. Consequently, some banks were put under receivership a few years after the crisis while others navigated through the difficult times, albeit with declining profitability. The Central Bank of Kenya responded wi...
Deposit Taking Microfinance institutions have increased in number through issuance of license by Central Bank of Kenya. The trend of financial sustainability for deposit taking microfinance institutions overall sector over the years has been below the threshold except for 2013 when operating self-sufficiency was only achieved. In the year 2017 the sector was hit by loss making whirlwind with only Faulu staying afloat thus raising an alarm that financial sustainability needed to be checke...
ABSTRACT Personal finance literature underscore the fact that only a minority of households feel confident about their saving adequacy on retirement because little is known about why people fail to plan and prepare for eventual retirement and even among households with similar socioeconomic characteristics savings and wealth vary considerably. Further, questions abound on whether planning and financial preparedness costs affect retirement saving patterns considering that many households arriv...
ABSTRACT Nongovernmental organizations play key role in delivering education, healthcare, social aid and other welfare activities in most developing countries like Kenya and hence their financial sustainability cannot be ignored. Financial sustainability requires that NGOs be able to meet all their resource and financing obligations and remain in existence for unforeseeable future. However, just a small number (10 percent) of NGOs that had managed to achieve a desirable level of institutional...
ABSTRACT Commercial banks remain the dominant channel of financial intermediation in emerging market economies such as Kenya. After the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, policy makers, regulators and financial institutions heavily invested in reforms aimed at improving financial stability. At the same time, there has been global commitment to promoting greater financial inclusion. Consequently, commercial banks have addressed financial inclusion by designing new services and products targ...
ABSTRACT Security has been and continues to be priority for both life and property world over. Due to the limitations of public security services the private sector has supplemented provision of security services. Overtime the registered security firms have come to rely more on establishments that acquire services purely on credit which often lead to due debts. This has led to large uncollected debts putting registered security firms into liquidity challenges. If such debts are not effici...
ABSTRACT In the attempt to alleviate poverty and empower the deprived, many non-governmental organizations and Government line agencies have been providing revolving funds and social services to rural dwellers in Kenya. The role of these funds is to help the rural poor, to earn a decent living, through their on-going income-generating activities. The government of Kenya overtime has formulated a series of revolving funds to counter the problem. The most notable and current, is the Youth Enter...
ABSTRACT Financial performance of the manufacturing sector contributes significantly to the economic development of both developing and developed economies. In, Kenya the Vision 2030 identifies the manufacturing sector as one of the key drivers for realizing a sustained annual gross domestic product growth, of tenpercent. However, the percentage contribution of manufacturing to the gross domestic product and merchandise exports has stagnated. Besides, financial performance of the Kenyan manuf...