Working Capital Management And Profitability Of Sembule Steel Mills Ltd, Kampala- Uganda

ABSTRACT

The study examined the relationship between working capital

management and profitability of manufacturing firms and it was based on four

specific objectives: (a) to determine the demographic characteristics of the

respondents in terms of age, gender, educational qualifications, and years in

the present position; (b) to determine the current level of working capital

management of the firms; (c) to determine the extent of profitability; and (d)

to establish if there is a significant relationship between the levels of working

capital management and the extent of profitability of selected manufacturing

firms. The study employed a descriptive correlation research design. SAQ were

used to collect primary data from 100 out of 134 employees, using simple

random sampling. Data analysis was done using SPSS's frequencies and

percentages; means and PLCC.Findings revealed that majority of the

respondents were male, falling in the age bracket of 20 - 30 years, with

bachelor's degree, and experience between 2 - 4 years. Also means and

standard deviation showed that the level of both working capital management

and profitability of the manufacturing firms were satisfactory. PLCC revealed a

positive and significant relationship between working capital and profitability in

the selected manufacturing firms while regression analysis showed that

working capital contribute 49.6% to profitability. Basing on the above findings,

the researcher made the following recommendations: (i) Manufacturing firms

need to install automatic methods of inventory management and use bin cards

to improve their efficiency and effectiveness; (ii) internal control system be

strengthened i.e authorization, physical checking, and dispatch of goods should

be controlled to ensure proper management of inventory management; (iii)

firms should control costs in order to minimize the losses and (iv) firms should

keep the price/earnings ratio of the organization high in order to optimise the working capital high.