Agency banking as a replica has been very flourishing in boosting the commercial banks’ performance in most developing states. Achievement stories have been witnessed in Peru, Columbia, India and Brazil. This study sought to investigate the effect agency banking had on the financial performance of Kenyan commercial banks in 2014. Chase bank was used as a case study. The study also sought to establish the effect of accessibility of banking services, low cost of service and increased customer transactions through agency banking. This study used a descriptive research design. The target population of this study was 174 staff working at the headquarters of Chase Bank. This study applied stratified random sampling to select 50% of the target population and hence the sample size of this study was 87 respondents. Out of 87 respondents 84 responses were obtained which represent a 97% response rate. Semi structured questionnaires were used in research study to collect primary data. A pretesting that involved 9 staff (10% of the sample size) was conducted at Chase bank at Wabera Street. From the pilot test findings, accessibility of banking services, low cost of service and increased customers transactions had Cronbach alpha of 0.724, 0.732 and 0.698 respectively. This clearly shows that the research instrument was reliable. In the data analysis, descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data and the findings were presented in bar charts, pie charts and tables. Content analysis analyzed data that is qualitative in nature and the findings presented in a prose form. The relationship between the dependent and the independent variables was determined using a multivariate regression analysis. The relationships in the study were positive and significant. The relationship between accessibility of banking services and financial performance of Chase Bank had a coefficient of 1.251 and a p-value of 0.000. In addition, the relationship between low cost of service and financial performance of Chase Bank had a coefficient of 0.800 and a p-value of 0.000. Further, the relationship between customer and the financial performance of Chase Bank had a coefficient of 0.311 and a p-value of 0.008. The study concludes that there is a positive and significant relationship between accessibility of banking services, low cost of service and customer transactions as a result of agency banking and financial performance of Chase Bank. Banking using agency banking excels in service quality and service delivery. Agency banking has low infrastructural cost and hence reduction in cost. Efficiency and convenience in operation in agency banking have increased the banks customers' transactions. The study recommends that commercial banks in Kenya should increase the number of agents in estates and in the rural areas. This study also recommends that commercial banks should also lower the charges of making transactions in agency banks. To improve the adoption of agency banking, commercial banks in Kenya should improve customers perception by making more advertisements and increase promotion activities.

The purpose of this study was to establish the functional loopholes in the customer support rendered in the telecom industry in Uganda, with a major focus on Twitter as the support channel, in order to assess how best the processes therein can be automated using machine learning in order to improve the overall customer experience. In this research, we considered a descriptive research design, and an endeavour was taken to use both qualitative and quantitative data to establish the state of customer support in the telecom industry in Uganda, as well as how best machine learning can be leveraged to improve it through automation. The target population consisted of 155 volunteers and the two biggest telecom service providers in Uganda by market share, that is — MTN and AIRTEL. Random sampling was used to select the online survey respondents, who were majorly students at Makerere University. 1003 customer support tweets sent to MTN and AIRTEL before 15th September 2022 were programmatically collected and analyzed to assess the the performance of these companies across various metrics in customer support, as well as to validate and justify our proposed method of automation. An online survey and the Twitter API were employed during the collection of data. Microsoft Excel was then extensively used to clean, code and enrich this data. Python was the primary language and tool used in the analysis of the data. The Numpy and Pandas libraries were used in the exploratory analysis of the data and Matplotlib was used in the explanatory, or rather visualization phase of the data analysis. When correlations were required, the Pearson correlation coefficient was used. After extensive research through existing literature, sentiment analysis using machine learning was proposed as a solution to automate some processes in the pipeline of a trouble ticket system. Two libraries, that is — PyABSA and TextBlob were used to analyze and justify this proposal. The research findings to a large degree proved the necessity for handling customer support in a platform or environment dedicated to that purpose, since such environments offer the best opportunities to automate processes in trouble ticket systems. The research paper concludes with a few recommendations on how best this research can be used to not only support subsquent research in this area, but also guide stakeholders concerned with customer care, support and experiene across various domains. Specifically, further research is encouraged in the automation of processes involved in e-governance, since it has one of the biggest amounts of data and highest need for automation.

Childhood malnutrition is a common problem in Uganda. Lack of proper nutrition during the early years can have lifelong consequences on educational attainment, health and economic outcomes. Locally available foodstuffs can be used to formulate nutritionally adequate food mixtures. This study aimed to develop acceptable inexpensive nutrient-dense mixtures from locally available foods for children aged 1-5 years in eastern Uganda (Kamuli, Buyende and Pallisa districts). The five least-cost sources of energy, protein, iron and zinc in each of the two rainy seasons and two dry seasons were identified from locally available foods. The gross energy, proximate and mineral compositions of the identified foods were determined and used to formulate optimal mixtures for the different seasons. The optimal mixtures for the dry seasons contained sweet potatoes, maize, sorghum, soybeans, beans, sesame and groundnuts. The optimal mixtures for the rainy seasons contained maize, sorghum, beans, sesame and groundnuts. The most acceptable formulations had functional properties that are desirable in foods for infants and young children such as high dispersibility (77.2-76.8%), low water absorption index (WAI) (1.7-2.0g/g) and high water solubility index (WSI) (0.2-.03g/g). The pasting properties indicated that the formulations form stable low viscosity pastes that can withstand breakdown during cooking and have high resistance to retrogradation on cooling. When cooked, the most acceptable formulation for the dry seasons had gross energy of 87.2 kcal, 2.3g of sugars, 9.5g of starch, 5.8g of protein, 1.6g of crude fat, 1.7g of fiber, 0.8g of ash, 7.5mg of iron and 1.6mg of zinc per 100g. The most acceptable formulation for the rainy seasons had gross energy of 71.4 kcal, 2.6g of sugars, 7.1g of starch, 4.2g of protein, 0.9g of crude fat, 1.0g of fiber, 0.6g of ash, 8.1mg of iron and 1.4mg of zinc per 100g. The cooked samples provided more than 50% of the Recommended Nutrient Intakes (RNI) for protein, iron and zinc for children aged 1-5 years per serving. The adoption of the formulations developed in this study has the potential to reduce undernutrition in children aged 1-5 years. However, it is recommended that in vitro digestibility and mineral bioavailability studies of the formulations are carried out to predict the fraction of nutrients that would be absorbed by a child`s gastrointestinal tract and as such make necessary readjustments to the formulations.

Many indigenous food species are nutrient dense; with nutritional potential to alleviate hunger and malnutrition. Ethnic communities in South Kivu province (Eastern DR Congo), especially in Walungu territory, know a numerous species of indigenous vegetables. Consumption of these vegetables has been associated with local nutritional and medicinal benefits. However, limited scientific evidence on their nutritional profile and potential contribution has led to their underutilization and devalorization. This study assessed the nutritional content and the use of indigenous leafy vegetables known and consumed by households in Walungu territory in the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A cross-sectional and descriptive study including households’ interviews and laboratory analysis of eight selected indigenous leafy vegetables was employed. The results revealed that 20 species of Indigenous Leafy Vegetables (ILVs) were commonly known and consumed in Walungu District. Majority of respondents claimed that these ILVs were consumed because they were available, tasty and nutritious. Washing vegetables with clean water before boiling was the common (98.8%) pre-processing treatment while boiling was the predominant (93.2%) preparation and cooking method used. In addition, cooking was done for one hour in the majority of households (58%). Air drying was the predominant (32.7%) preservation technology applied on vegetables in Walungu. Other alternatives included sun drying (26.2%) or no preservation at all (40.1%). Results further indicated that out of the 20 AILs commonly known and consumed in Walungu, Mushaka (Cleome schimperi), Lushenda (Capsicum frutescens) and Bishogolo (Phaseolus vulgaris) leaves were the most nutritious due to their protein content (5-28%), dietary fiber (8-38%), Iron content (81-177mg/kg), carotenoids (29.9-132.1μg/g) and vitamin C (42.2-56.8mg/100g) concentration. These results suggested that indigenous leafy vegetables consumption and utilization should be promoted for their availability and nutritional value. Further investigations should be undertaken to establish the impact of a daily consumption of these ILV on the health status of individuals across different age groups and gender; and to assess the nutritional value of varieties among species of indigenous leafy vegetables and the effect of processing patterns of them. Key words: Indigenous vegetables, utilization, food and nutrition security

Parking Management System is a parking strategy that combines technology and human innovation in an effort to use as few resources as possible, such as fuel, time and space, to achieve faster, easier and denser parking of vehicles. In Kampala Capital City, drivers find it hard to locate available and secure parking space. The main objective of this study was to develop a Parking Management System which would provide adequate information about available and secure parking space for motorists in Kampala Capital City. A Parking Management System is a system which allows real-time data to be obtained about parking availability, both outside and inside, and regarding traffic and road conditions. This report is a detailed compilation of all the activities we engaged in while developing the Parking Management System. In this study, we carried out interviews and administered questionnaires about smart parking, we used programming languages like PHP, MySQL, CSS and JavaScript to develop the Parking Management System as well as tools like Visual Studio Code for coding and SPSS to carryout data analysis. The system was developed using agile methods that involved iterative methods of development and testing. Results show that more than 68% of the people contacted had never heard of a Parking Management System in their area and 84% have been in circumstances where they were late for something because they could not find a parking spot, 84% recommended the development of a Parking Management System and 94% say it would be effective. The Parking Management System is able to show availability of parking spaces in real time and the system is able to generate a unique code for a motorist when he or she books parking space. This code is presented to the Park Administrator during time of payment. Majority of the respondents recommended the Parking Management System and also believed it would be effective. The Parking Management System was developed mainly for motorists around Kampala Capital City in Uganda, we recommend the Kampala City Council to adopt the developed system to manage street parking, plan to automate street parking in order to reduce on the amount of money lost to parking fees defaulters and improve space utilization, recommend traffic routes, and track down space utilization in real-time to overcome traffic congestion, accidents and pollution.

The information management system for the distribution of farm inputs is a system that enables farmers to receive information in form of feedback from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, and NAADs about farm inputs distribution. It will also enable farmers to apply and receive farm inputs from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, and NAADs using both a portal for farmers with internet enabled devices and USSD for those without internet enabled devices. The system was developed because of the problem of inappropriate management of information related to distribution of farm inputs, this was due to lack of clear information management in relation to distribution of farm inputs. The system requirements for the developed system were collected using questionnaires and interviewing the farmers in Luwero district and officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. Data from the interviews and questionnaires was analyzed using SPSS and excel to come up with the functional, non-functional system requirements. The requirements were later used to design the system by creating data flow diagrams and entity relationship diagrams. The designed system was implemented using different development tools which are; HTML for creating interfaces, MySQL was used to build database and PHP as server side scripting language to connect the user interfaces to the databases. Improvements and enhancements of the systems are highly possible and viable such as the current functions in order to produce better output.

In a typical antenatal care management information system, records are usually kept for future reference, retrieval, reproduction and easy management. The daily activities, schedules and events are also recorded. If there is need to know the population of pregnant women, one may need to count the records obtained from different files that contain papers with information. The main objective of this project was to design and develop a new system of managing information in antenatal care. The system helps the hospital in reducing paper work and enhances tidiness in record keeping since the existing antenatal care uses manual keeping that is use of files, books and papers. It also reduces costs incurred in purchasing files, books and papers for individual entities. The system manages records of doctors and pregnant women and their children. The system allows the user to book appointment, print appointment letter and keep records. The study examined various aspects of objectives, and analyzed them and related to the literature and data which was corrected using interviews, questionnaire and observation. It focused on both qualitative and quantitative approach as the methodology. This is because the research is aimed to obtain non biased data from various respondents using both numerical and non-numerical figures such as feelings and emotions. The methodology that was used for software development shall be the rapid application development (RAD) model. It is based on prototyping and iterative development with no specific planning involved. It also focuses on gathering user requirements, early testing of the prototype by the customer using the iterative concept, re use of the existing component and continuous integration. RAD was preferred because requirement may change during project. It is suitable for short term projects that require quick delivery. By using RAD, it was easier to measure progress of the project. The chapter four deals with how the system was designed, developed and its implementation. The antenatal care management information system input and output specifications, designs and why PHP and Java Script language were chosen for development. It also describes why PHP web framework was selected for faster development of the system due to time. The last chapter of this report focuses on summary, concluding and further studies that can be carried out after the system was implemented like addition of new modules.

Diets in rural households are usually less diverse with a higher percentage composed of starchy staples and are low in cheap sources of proteins and micronutrients such as legumes, fruits and vegetables. The main objective of this study was to determine how behaviour change messages and nutritionally improved recipes facilitate diversification of legumes, vegetables and fruits in complementary feeding and meals of farming households in Kapchorwa district. A mixed-method research design was used whereby dietary behaviour was assessed using the 24-hour recall method during a cross-sectional baseline survey. This was followed by “Trials of Improved Practices (TIPs)” to determine barriers and facilitators to uptake of dietary behaviour change messages. Lastly, participatory cooking demonstrations were conducted to determine the acceptability of nutritionally improved local recipes. Quantitative analysis of Minimum Dietary Diversity of Women (MDD-W) of reproductive age showed that 61% of women assessed consumed at least five out of ten food groups. The mean frequency of food group consumption was 4.73 and SD ±1.00. Generally, all participating women consumed at least starchy staples. Vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables were consumed by only 4% of the women and 19% ate “other fruits”. Qualitative data were analysed using Thematic Content Analysis (TCA). During the TIPs household visits, the majority of the women either tried or demonstrated a willingness to eat a variety of legumes, vegetables and fruits. They were motivated by factors such as access, availability, usual dietary practice, reduced monotony and perceived health benefits. However, uptake of recommendations were hindered by seasonality, long cooking time for legumes, cost of ingredients, lack of income, distance to the food market, previous skills. Overall, practical cooking sessions showed high acceptability of recipes with a proportion of 93% and 89% of the women selecting modified legume and vegetable dishes respectively. The acceptability of modified recipes was motivated by improved sensory attributes, reduced overall preparation time, compatibility with the local dietary practices, solid fuel saving and perceived health benefits. Conversely, cost of ingredients and distance to the market were cited as barriers to recipe acceptability. In conclusion, behaviour change messages accompanied by practical cooking and tasting of modified recipes is one of the feasible means for the adoption of improved diet-related practices that can lead to improved dietary diversification.

A study was undertaken to assess storage and retrieval of active records at Sanyu Babies’ Home. The objectives were to establish the current status of storage and retrieval of active records at Sanyu Babies’ Home, to find out how storage and retrieval of active records at Sanyu Babies’ Home is managed, to identify the challenges of storage and retrieval of active records at Sanyu Babies’ Home and to make suggestions for the best practices in storage and retrieval active records at Sanyu Babies’ Home. The study adopted a case study research design. Purposive sampling method was used and permitted the researcher to gather information from the targeted population without undertaking a complete inventory. The study considered 3 respondents; secretary, bursar and head section SWSA. Data was collected using observation, interview and document analysis. The findings revealed that babies at Sanyu Babies’ Home were found abandoned in garbage heaps, pit latrines, hospitals, clinics, diches, taxi parks, trenches, markets, bush, Sanyu Babies’ Home gate and on the road side. Sanyu Babies’ Home maintained records about babies’ origin records, donation records, adoption records, babies’ medical records, staff records and record from police especially police reports, letters from the probation officers, care order issued by the court, police and criminal clearance reports. At Sanyu Babies Home, all active records about the staff and babies were stored in soft copy on computers and external hard drives and hard copies were kept in cupboards. The study established that records at Sanyu Babies Home were retrieved when tracing identity and during assessment by The Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development to ensure that Sanyu Babies Home conforms to the relevant policies. Management of storage of active records was ensured by backing up of records on external hard drives, records were placed box files and file folder before placing them in wooden cupboards. Retrieval was managed by chronological arrangement of records, labelling of files and alphabetical arrangement of files. Sanyu Babies’ Home faced challenges of inadequate funding, inadequate space, limited storage equipment and misplacement of records. The study recommended that Sanyu Babies Home should recruit trained records management personnel as a crucial element to enable effective storage and timely retrieval of requested records because the study established that most the people dealing with records are not qualified nor trained in records management practices.