Microfinance banks have been experiencing increased cases of loan default, which is a hindrance to their primary objective of supporting low-income households. Therefore, this study sought to determine the effect of internal factors on the level of non-performing loans among deposit taking microfinance banks in Kenya. The precise goals were to ascertain how Kenyan deposit-taking microfinance banks' levels of capital adequacy, asset quality, management competence, earning capacity, and liquidity influenced the proportion of non-performing loans. The adverse selection and moral hazard theories served as the study's foundation. The explanatory research design was used in this study. 13 CBK-regulated microfinance banks made up the study's sample. The study used secondary panel data that covered the years 2015 through 2021. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the level of nonperforming loans was positively and significantly influenced by managerial skill. The level of non-performing loans was significantly and negatively impacted by liquidity. The level of nonperforming loans was negatively but insignificantly impacted by capital sufficiency, asset quality, and earnings potential. The study concluded that management capability of microfinance banks is unable to recognize and respond to financial challenges such as non-performing loans. The study came to the additional conclusion that microfinance institutions with high liquidity levels can control the level of non-performing loans. The study also found that capital adequacy, asset quality, and earnings capacity had a little impact on the level of non-performing loans. According to the study, management of microfinance institutions should improve their management skills. By lowering operating costs and raising operational profits, this can be accomplished. The report also suggests that microfinance bank management should improve their liquidity ratio. This can be achieved through control of overhead expenses, disposal of unnecessary assets, and renegotiation of debt obligations.

Strategic alliances play an essential role to the success of modern organizations. Businesses are increasingly developing strategic alliances to improve their performance and market position. The establishment of strategic alliances is a reaction to globalization and the complicated and uncertain business environment. Companies are developing strategic alliances to help them expand their market share, enter new markets, develop dynamic skills, and lower operating costs The study aimed to investigate the influence of strategic alliances on performance of commercial banks in Kenya: A case study of NCBA bank Kenya PlC. The study used the following two theories; Resource Based View Theory (RBV) and Dynamic Capabilities Theory. The study was qualitative in nature, hence adopting a case study as its design. The research instrument used to collect the data was the interview guide. The data obtained by the researcher was analysed qualitatively by the help of content analysis. The study found that NCBA bank formed strategic partnership with in order to increase its customer base number, market share, improve customer service, develop more products or services and eventually achieve profitability. The study found out that NCBA bank had formed strategic alliances with the insurance firms through NBCA insurance agency. The bank had also formed a strategic alliance with Safaricom PLC so as to offer Mshwari and Fuliza products. The bank had also formed a strategic alliance with Isuzu Kenya. The strategic alliance allowed private schools and National Police Service to purchase and lease buses from ISUZU and get financed with NCBA bank. The study found out that NCBA had formed a strategic alliance with Mysafe Vaults and Kenya association of manufacturers. The study also found out that NCBA bank had a strategic alliance with Tilisi developments, Optiven Limited and Shelter Afrique. The study concluded that strategic alliance contributed to the performance of NCBA bank. The strategic alliances formed by NCBA bank can be attributed to have significantly improved the performance of NCBA bank and led to an increase in the customer base, market and profit of the bank. The study concluded that NCBA bank has been able to influence customers as the result of strategic alliances. The study also concluded that NCBA bank has been able to adjust to the changes and opportunity available in the market due to strategic alliance. The researcher concluded that NCBA achieved the following as a result of strategic alliances; markets expansion, increase in customer number, adoption of better technologies to improve customer service delivery and development of new advanced products and services for the customers. Lastly, the study concluded that NCBA bank has diversified its products and services though identifying opportunities and coming up with a product that meets the needs of the market segment identified. The study recommends NCBA to continue forming new strategic alliances for better improvement of the customers services and profitability of the organization. The study also recommends that NCBA to incorporate data protection in its strategic alliances. The study also recommends the government to offer support to banks by providing good working environment and favorable taxes.

Earning management has been trending in the current financial market. The corporate governance has been utilized in ensuring that unsuspecting shareholders have different information. This is due to informational asymmetry. The research aimed at finding the effect of corporate governance on the earning management. The research optimized five predictor variables with firm size as the sixth being the control variable. The research found a significant association amid the predictors’ variables and the regressed variables. The postulated predictor variable explained 53% before controlling for firm size as stipulated by R-Square. After controlling for firm size they explained 68% of changes in the regressed variable meaning firm size alone explained 15% changes in EM. The research stipulated that the variables not indicated in this research accounted for 32%. This laid a crucial foundation in the analysis of earning management. The predictor variables analyzed showed that three repressor variables had positive association amid the earning management and corporate governance. The three variables were; board size, ownership concentration and Board Activity. However, two variables posted negative association, this include; Board independence, Audit Committee. Firm Size also had positive controlling effect on EM and corporate governance. The research postulated a great role of corporate governance on earning management. The research summarized that a unitary increase in each of the following; board size, ownership concentration and Board activity led to an increase in the earning management by 22.4%, 5.2% and 0.1% in that order all other factors constant when firm size is controlled. The research findings postulated that a unit increase in the audit committee led to a decrease in the earning management by 10%. The research further stated that an increase in the one unit of board independence led to a decrease in the earning management by 3.4% when all factors are kept constant and firm size is controlled. The multicollinearity test opined that the data was statistically significant. The researcher recommended further research on the same topic as well the use of first-hand information. The research further clarified the importance of CMA and NSE in stipulating policies to evade the far-reaching problems.

Financial analysts argue in favour of debt utilization, believing that debt finance can help improve a company's performance. The listed firms in Kenya have been experiencing poor profitability in the recent years. Could this be attributed to the debt financing among the firms. This study sought to determine the effect of debt financing on profitability of listed firms in Kenya. The study adopted net income, agency and pecking order theories. The study adopted net profit margin as the measure for profitability which was the dependent variable. Debt financing was adopted as the independent variable and measured in terms of debt ratio. The study adopted firm size, liquidity and equity financing as the control variables. The study adopted descriptive research design on forty-two (42) listed firms in Kenya. This research was grounded on secondary data from individual firm reports of listed firms in Kenya between 2017 and 2021. The reports were mined from the NSE website. The data collection schedule was used for data collection. Stata 14 was utilized for generation of descriptive and regression statistics. Diagnostic tests of normality, multicollinearity, stationarity, autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity were done. The researcher used F-statistics generated through ANOVA to test for the significance of the regression model. The study found that, between 2017 and 2021, the listed firms showed an average profitability as measured by net profit margin of 8%; debt financing showed of 29.04% as reflected in debt ratio; liquidity at 10.59%; Firm size, average log of 9.70; and equity financing at 54.57% as measured by equity ratio. The regression model summary showed a strong relationship between the predictor variables and profitability. The predictors contributed a proportion of 51.1% of the profitability of listed firms. From the ANOVA, debt financing and the control variables had a significant effect on profitability of listed firms. From the regression coefficients, debt financing, liquidity and firm size had significant positive regression coefficients while equity financing had a negative insignificant regression coefficient. The study concludes that debt financing, liquidity and firm size have a positive effect while equity financing has an insignificant effect on profitability of listed firms in Kenya. The study recommends that listed firms in Kenya increase their debt financing; to increase their liquidity ratios optimally by increasing the level of liquid assets or by reducing the level of liquid assets; to increase their assets by purchasing more; and adopt less equity in financing their opertaions to increase the profitability of the firms. The study was limited by the variables of the study; scope; nature of data; and research methods adopted in the study. The study recommends a study based on other factors influencing profitability of listed firms; other firms other than listed firms; primary or quarterly or semi-annual data; as well as other analytical techniques like One Sample T-test or correlation.

The study sought to establish the magnitude of the determinants of access to credit finance by micro, small and medium enterprises in Nairobi County. The study identified owner’s financial literacy, access to business support services, ownership structure and market size as the determinant variables while ease of credit access was the dependent variable. The study collected a sample of 179 responses from participants who were able to complete and submit their responses from the questionnaires which were administered through drop and pick later method. The responses represented a response rate of 84.5% which was found adequate for the study. The analysis involved both descriptive and inferential statistics which were found relevant to achieve the objective of the study. In summary, ease of credit access was found to have an overall performance which was below average which implied that MSMEs are struggling to access credit finances in Kenya. Owner’s financial literacy had an average performance implying that majority of MSMEs owners have average financial knowledge which is also a challenge in accessing credit finance. Access to business support services was poor indicating that MSMEs do not easily get access to business support services therefore making it harder to acquire credit finance. The correlation analysis established that both owner’s financial literacy and access to business support services had strong, positive and significant correlations against ease of credit access. Ownership structure had a weak and insignificant positive correlation against ease of credit access while market size indicated a positive and significant impact against ease of credit access. The study as well carried out regression analysis which revealed that the model accounted for 38.2 % of the changes in the dependent variable. The adjusted R square was slightly below R square to indicate that the model consists of elements that are not adding value to the model. Owner’s financial literacy, access to business support services and market size were found to have a positive xii relationship with ease of credit access while ownership structure had negative impact on ease of credit access. The study therefore, concluded that owner’s financial literacy and access to business support services require improvement as they affect the ease of credit access among MSMEs in Kenya, while ownership structure and market size do not have any significant effect on ease of credit access of MSMEs in Nairobi. The study recommended that the government should carry out nationwide trainings and workshops to help improve on financial literacy. The study also recommended that the business owners should avoid small term loans, to finance their business operations and at the same time the study recommended them to increase operations that would help them grow their assets (size).

The adoption of budget controls in many organizations has been slow paced and in some poorly implemented that leaves loopholes for fraud and misuse of organization resources. Some organization managers have failed to understand the direct impact between budget controls and financial performance, hence failing in giving budget controls the seriousness it deserves while in other organizations the budget controls are seen as a responsibility of the finance and accounting department and budget controls did not cut across the organization functions. The study examined the effect of budget controls on financial performance of SACCOs in Mombasa County. The theoretical review of the study comprised of four key theories i.e Accounting Theory in Budgeting Control, Theory of budgeting, Control theory and Stewardship theory. The study methodology comprised of a descriptive research design, a target population of 40 managers from SACCOs licensed and operating in Mombasa County. Data was collected using primary instruments i.e questionnaires and secondary instruments i.e financial statements. Data instruments were tested for reliability, validity and diagnostic tests. Data obtained was analysed using descriptive and inferential techniques aided by SPSS. Research concluded that budget controls have a positive and significant influence on targeted SACCOs. Specifically, it was concluded that, Budget monitoring, Budget planning and Budget review had a positive significant influence while insignificant effect was reported for Participative budgeting. The conclusion arrived led to the recommendations that SACCO managers ensure full adoption of budget control systems to ensure that they minimize on resource wastages. To ensure SACCO managers fully realize the benefit of Budget Controls, the study recommended for full involvement of all stakeholders in the budget making and where necessary training provided to stakeholders with less understanding of the budgeting process. There is also need for continuous monitoring of expenses to ensure that, all resources are used for intended purposes. Finally, the study recommended for ensuring the budgeting making process is comprehensive and all needs of the organization are adequately considered to get rid of reallocation of resources that encourage mismanagement of resources.

URI http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/162644 Publisher University of Nairobi Rights Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States Usage Rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ Collections Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Law, Business Mgt (FoA&SS / FoL / FBM) [24361]

URI http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/handle/11295/162742 Publisher University of Nairobi Rights Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States Usage Rights http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ Collections Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Law, Business Mgt (FoA&SS / FoL / FBM) [24361]

The number of people participating in pension schemes, as well as the value of their holdings, has increased dramatically in recent decades. There are now around 1200 registered schemes, with over 1.7 million participants. The industry's asset base has expanded both quantitatively and relative to GDP. The schemes provide investment policies to RBA as guided by the investment guidelines in terms of providing limits to the varying assets classes. The macroeconomic environment in which the retirement benefits schemes operates and the two macroeconomic policies, namely monetary and fiscal impact the performance of the investments of the pension schemes. The study's goal is to evaluate the impact of budgetary allocations on the sustainability of Kenya's pension programs. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of macroeconomic factors on the sustainability of Kenya's pension systems. A descriptive survey approach was used for this study. All 81 pension programs in Kenya were accounted for in the study. Secondary data sources included the RBA, Kenya Revenue Authority, corporate financial statements, and the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) for the monthly period spanning 2017-2021. The financial accounts of pension systems in Kenya were analyzed to collect data on the dependent variable, financial performance. The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics provided information on the country's trade surplus, public debt, and government spending; the financial statements of individual businesses provided information on operating expenses and liquidity; and the Kenya Revenue Authority provided information on taxation. Using SPSS version 20, both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to the gathered quantitative data for analysis. According to the findings of this research, the success of pension programs in Kenya is closely tied to the government's budgetary stance. R Square for the independent variables of the research (Kenya's trade balance, government spending, government debt, taxes, operational expenses, and pension scheme liquidity) was 0.645, suggesting that these factors explain 64.5% of the variation in performance. The overall significance of the regression analysis indicates that the investigated business characteristics considerably impact the financial performance behavior of pension funds. More research on the factors that affect the financial success of pension plans throughout the country is required.

Recent technological advancements have resulted in access to mobile phones by majority of the adult population. A wide variety of mobile phone based financial services that have made it easier for individuals to transfer money affordably have consequently emerged. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of mobile money services on saving culture among individual small business owners in Toi Market, Nairobi County. The study adopted descriptive research design. The target population of the study comprises of 750 individual small business owners within Toi Market. The study adopted stratified random sampling to select 100 respondents and primary data collected using questionnaires. Collected data was analyzed through descriptive and regression statistics generated through SPSS. Multiple regression analysis was used to obtain the relationship between saving culture and mobile money services. The Analysis of Variance was used to determine the significance of the results. The study concluded that mobile money services had a positive and significant effect on saving culture among individual small business owners in Toi market. The study found that majority of respondents used mobile money services to place savings and that they valued the presence of a wide network of agents as well as the ease with which deposits could be made via mobile money services the most and this impacted on the level of savings held. The study recommended the need to develop more savings products that involved the use of mobile money agents as part of the service package and that the products get market tested to ensure they are easy for customers to us in placing deposits. The study also recommends that mobile money products empower customers with information to enable them to verify the transactions occurring relating to their mobile money savings.