Customary tenure system is one of the most prominent land tenure systems in Africa and in Uganda, majority of people hold land under customary tenure whereof, about 77% is unregistered and in Northern Uganda registered land only forms about 0.01%. Uganda has one of the best and most progressive legal and policy framework on land with a special recognition of customary tenure as presented in the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995, the Land Act, 1998, the Physical Planning Act, 2010, the Land Regulations, 2004, the Physical Planning Regulations, Guidelines and Standards, the Uganda National Land Policy, 2013 and the National Land Use Policy, 2014 among others. Land registration is one of the ways globally recognized for providing security of tenure to land owners as it aids proper identification of land boundaries, documentation of land rights and issuance of legal documents. Customary land owners in Uganda have continuously demanded for legal documentation on customary land because of the continued land rights violations, difficulties in the enforcement of such right, encroachments, uncertainties in the identification of boundaries, and fraudulent conversions of customary land into freehold tenure. Despite the existence of the legal and policy framework on customary land registration in Uganda, Government made no fruitful efforts to implement this legal framework until 2016 which raises a question as to why the implementation of this legal and policy framework has taken this long. This study therefore makes a critical analysis of the legal and policy framework on customary land registration in Uganda using a case study of Nwoya district. The study reviewed the evolution of land ownership and registration in Uganda, analyzed the current legal and policy framework on customary land registration, evaluated how the legal and policy framework have been implemented, using the practical examples from the field. The study then identified the challenges and the gaps in the legal framework like the insufficiency and ineffectiveness of the law and lack of the necessary sufficient infrastructures in place required for proper implementation of the existing legal framework. The study recommended a comprehensive review of the legal framework for customary land registration, the need to develop an Independent policy on customary land tenure, the Recordation of customary rules and regulations relating to customary land, Institution of a functional Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms; Sensitization of all customary Land owners; Digitalization of the registration of customary land; Empowerment and facilitation of traditional institutions to handle matters relating to customary land and constructing and equipping of the necessary infrastructure at the sub-counties. All these are aimed at addressing the gaps and hindrances in the process of registering customary land in order to fully protect the land rights of all the customary land owners to ensure an operational, effective and sufficient legal framework for customary land registration This research was conducted in Nwoya district and the main tools of data collection were mainly literature review and interviews. Literature used included peer reviewed journals papers, books, research reports, conference working papers, Newspaper articles and various land laws. The literature review guided the evolution of land ownership and the legal framework for customary land registration. Interviews were conducted with officials from Ministry of Lands Housing and Urban Development, members from the land management institutions, traditional institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) supporting customary land registration in Nwoya, members from district leadership and beneficiaries of the customary land registration in Nwoya district. The interviews with the selected respondents supplemented on the literature review and also provided information regarding the practical implementation of the legal framework on customary land registration

The study examines the effect of the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards Accounting for Leases (IFRS 16) on the quality of financial reporting of Kenyan listed firms. The research considered other variables in determining the effect. Included in the model as control variables are profitability, liquidity, leverage and firm size. The research takes a quantitative approach where quantitative data was collected and analyzed. The response variable, Financial Reporting Quality (FRQ) is measured using the quantitative approach developed by Nijmegen Center for Economics (NICE). FRQ metrics with 33 components make the response variable, whereas company-specific characteristics of leverage, firm size, profitability, liquidity and IFRS 16 adoption make up the predictor variables. A dummy variable measures IFRS 16 adoption is with value 0 before adoption and 1 after adoption era. The researcher derived data used for the study from the yearly issued statements of entities trading at the NSE for the accounting years 2017-2020. Period 2017 & 2018 represent pre-adoption period while year 2019 & 2020 represents the post-adoption period. The researcher analyzed the data via means of descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, analysis of variance, as well as panel regression analysis. Only IFRS 16 adoption was statistically significant in explaining the quality of financial reporting of quoted entities in Kenya. The study results show that, IFRS 16 adoption enhances the quality of firms’ financial reports. Scholars, investors, managers, policymakers, and regulators could use these findings to enhance financial reporting.

The importance of exports in stimulating economic growth is well acknowledged in both past and recent literature. Results are however mixed and therefore inconclusive on the composition of exports that contribute to economic growth. This study therefore aims at examining the effects of manufactured exports on economic growth in Uganda. Specifically, the study analyzed the trend of manufactured exports in Uganda, establishing both the short and long-run relationship between manufactured exports and Economic growth in Uganda.. The study uses quarterly second time series data obtained from World Development Indicators of 2019. The auto regressive distributed lag estimation approach is used based on the order of integration of the study variables and the presence of long run relationship. The study results show that, both in the short run and long run, in quarterly terms, manufactured exports have a significant positive effect on economic growth. In long run a 1 percent change in manufactured exports leads to 15.9 percent increase/decrease in GDP on average, holding other factors constant. However, in short run, manufactured exports have a marginally effect on GDP which is anout 0.006 percent though statistically significant. Uganda’s manufactured exports still account for a very low portion (16.9%) of the total exports and most of these (77.9%) involve the use of low levels of technology, therefore its overall impact on economic growth is still weak. The study recommends enhancement of export incentives and subsidies to include provision of Credit facilities such as low-cost loans and Financial guarantees for the manufacturing sector to further increase export levels. Secondly, Reinforcement of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements to eliminate trade barriers. Thirdly, enhancing financing for domestic production through domestic investment and FDIs so as to boost the employment of factors of production including labour. Keywords: Manufactured exports, Economic growth, Auto regressive Distributed Lag Model.

Over the years, public borrowing has been employed by governments to meet their financial deficits. Kenya’s public debt has been on a continuous rise, with sharp increases being experienced in the last 7 years. Domestic and external debts currently share a similar portfolio, each contributing to half of the total public debt. This paper sought to study how each type of debt, that is, domestic and external debt impacts individually on the country’s economic growth. The study incorporated quarterly data for the period 1995-2015. The study employed a modified Solow’s growth model. Growth was explained by both domestic and external debt separately and other macroeconomic control variables including physical capital, human capital, population, inflation, broad money and trade. The two models were thereof compared for analysis. Cointegration analysis was employed to empirically establish the existence of a long-run relationship between Gross Domestic Product, and the above-named variables. The study revealed that in the case of domestic debt, it has an insignificant but positive impact on economic growth, while physical capital, human capital, inflation and trade significantly explained variations in economic growth. Population and broad money supply were also found insignificant at 5% level of significance. In the case of external debt, it was found to have a significant but negative relationship with growth. Physical capital, human capital, population, inflation and trade together with external debt significantly explained variations in economic growth, while money supply was insignificant. The short-run Error Correction models affirmed the existence of cointegrating relationships for the growth models. In the case of domestic debt model, when an exogenous shock disturbs the equilibrium condition, 91.8% of its effect is adjusted in one quarter, compared to 91.1% in the case of external debt as depicted by the respective error correction terms. This study recommends that government borrowings from international markets must be put into efficient use, and concessionary loans as opposed to commercial loans should be pursued to avoid debt overhang problems. The government should also pursue a balanced budget, and intensify local revenue collection.

The main objective of the study was to identify the determinants that led to the export trade growth in Uganda for the period 1986-2016. The study was conducted using data obtained from African Development Indicators; World Bank tables and the United Nations Statistics Division Common Database. An export supply model used by Musinguzi et al (2000) was adopted for the study. Foreign price level and Foreign Direct Investment were added to Gross Domestic Product, Terms of Trade and Real Exchange Rate, the explanatory variables used in the model adopted. Foreign price level was found to be statistically significant in explaining export growth for Uganda between 1986 and 2016. Interestingly, Foreign Direct Investment, Real Exchange Rate and Gross Domestic Product as per the findings do not significantly affect export growth. This study recommends that in order to improve export growth, the motive of Uganda needs to focus on the value addition on agriculture exports since it is the major source of exports this will improve her Terms of Trade. Government of Uganda should undertake initiatives to increase the Terms of trade which will in turn boost export growth.

Poverty alleviation is one of the main goals of SDGs. Public sector, civic society and private sector organizations contribute to the realization of this goal in low-income settlements. One such means is through community-based housing schemes. However, the mobilization of different factors to performance of community-based housing projects is still unknown. This research project investigates the perceived factors that influence community-based housing projects in Mukuru slums. The project looks at how community participation, resource mobilization, leadership and socio-cultural environment influence the performance of such projects. Theory of change, Marxian theory of poverty and cultural theory of poverty guided the study. This study employed use of cross-sectional descriptive research design. The target population of the study was the project officers, managers and residents of the area. The study sample size was 156 respondents and the respondents were selected through convenience sampling, stratified sampling and purposive sampling. The study made use of primary data collection that was collected using questionnaire, focused group discussions and key informant interviews. Data was analyzed through quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The findings showed that community participation influences the performance of community-based housing projects in Mukuru Slums positively by a factor of 0.308 supported by a p-value of 0.001. The results also indicated that resource mobilization leads to an improved performance of community-based housing projects by 0.016 with a p-value of 0.862. The findings also demonstrated that institutional leadership leads to an increase in performance of community-based housing projects in Mukuru Slums by 0.226 with a p-value at 0.003. The findings also depicted that socio-cultural environment leads to a decrease in performance of community-based housing projects in Mukuru Slums by 0.143 with a p-value of 0.139. The study concluded that performance of community-based housing projects is dependent on community participation, resource mobilization and institutional leadership. The findings recommend that housing-based projects managers develop strategies to strengthen community participation, resource mobilization and institutional leadership in implementation of community-based housing projects.

Equity and bond markets are essential to creating higher economic efficiency. For strong economic development, a well-functioning financial sector is a critical component. By presenting investment opportunities to local and international savers and financing the government's budget deficit, the Kenyan bond market is crucial to the country's economic growth. The domestic bond market in Kenya, on the other hand, is relatively tiny compared to the rest of the globe, although it is rated third in sub-Sahara Africa in terms of market size. Even in the face of the country's economic difficulties, this market remains crucial for government bonds. Macroeconomic variables were examined in this research to see how they affected the performance of the Kenyan bond market. Specifically, the research intended to examine the impact of interest rate, inflation rate, foreign currency rate, money supply, and equities market performance on bond market performance in Kenya. The analysis found statistically significant positive correlations between interest rates and bond market turnover and between the money supply and bond market development. Exchange rate and bond market development are statistically linked in a negative manner. There is no statistical significance to the correlation between the inflation rate and bond market development. The negative relationship between equity market performance index and bond market development is also established as not statistically significant. On dual causality, equity market performance exhibits dual causality relationships with the bond market performance, Bond market performance has dual causality with interest rates, equity market performance exhibit dual causality with exchange rates, money supply exhibits dual causality with bond market turnover and money supply exhibits dual causality with interest rates. The study recommends that the Government and Regulatory agencies should strengthen the interest rate regulatory framework so as to infuse economic development in diverse sectors of the Kenyan economy. The money supply as a responsibility of the central bank should be modelled to encourage private borrowing, bond market development and credit creation. A proactive approach to controlling macro-economic issues in the economy is also suggested by state and economic planners. Concentrate on factors that worsen corporate bond performance, such rising inflation and changing currency rates. For a longer research period, the paper advises a study using a variety of lagged macroeconomic parameters and the performance of bond markets in a regional context. Research on the impact of industry and company-level characteristics on the performance of corporate bonds should be conducted in the near future. Bond market failure in an economy may be studied in more detail, as can its origins and repercussions. Other emerging regions, such as East Africa, may be included in a research to help these nations create effective policies in the bond market.

Background: Pediatric chronic kidney disease remains a challenging and relatively understudied area of pediatric nephrology, which affects several children globally. Patients with chronic kidney disease are more susceptible to developing suboptimal vitamin D than the general population. . In children particularly, Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with hyperparathyroidism leading to defective bone mineralization. Currently, the prevalence of suboptimal vitamin D is unknown in Kenya. Objectives: The primary objective was to determine the prevalence of suboptimal vitamin D in chronic kidney disease children. The secondary objective was to correlate the levels of vitamin D with the stage of CKD, Parathyroid hormone, Calcium, phosphate and to determine factors associated with vitamin D deficiency. Methodology: A cross-sectional study design that recruited participants aged less than 18 years from KNH renal units with recorded CKD diagnoses in their hospital records. Data was collected using a structured interviewer-based questionnaire, physical examination was conducted and 4mls of blood was drawn for determination of vitamin D (calcidiol), parathyroid hormone, calcium, and phosphate. Data Analysis: Data was entered into the Microsoft access database for coding and cleaning then exported to STATA 13.0. Categorical and continuous data were summarized as frequencies & their respective percentages as mean or median, respectively. Calcidiol was categorized as adequate, deficiency, and insufficiency which were reported as percentages with binomial exact 95% confidence intervals. Logistic regression with crudes odds ratio reported as measures of effect was used to determine the association between D levels with CKD stage, PTH, Ca2+, phosphate levels, and factors associated with vitamin D deficiency. Results: Eighty patients with chronic kidney disease were recruited into the study. The majority were in Stage 3 (58%) and stage 4 (40%). Those with adequate and insufficient vitamin D levels were 36% and 54% respectively. The odds of having hypocalcemia with suboptimal vitamin D was 8 times more (CAR 8.87, P=0.01). Conclusions: The study findings revealed a higher prevalence of 90% suboptimal vitamin D levels.

This investigation focused on supply chain integration and how it is linked with operational performance of the manufacturing entities in Mogadishu, Somalia. The specific focus of the inquiry was on extent of supply chain integration and how this is linked with operational performance. The investigation leveraged on descriptive survey design targeting 52 manufacturing entities with use of census where data was gathered from first hand sources. Processing of the gathered views of the participants was done as supported by descriptive and inferential statistics. It was noted that supplier integration had the largest contribution towards operational performance followed by customer integration and then internal integration. The study concluded that supply chain integration significantly contributes towards operational performance of the firm. The study recommended that the policy makers of the manufacturing firms in Mogadishu should give more weight on supplier integration followed by customer integration and then internal integration. The procurement and supply chain managers of the manufacturing firms in Mogadishu should focus more on suppliers and customers since this would significantly enhance operational performance. The study was limited by some challenges that impaired the spread of Covid-19 pandemic so that it was difficult to meet all the required respondents since most of them were affected by Corona and they were working from their homes. The study recommends further studies to focus on Supply chain integration in other industries and thus meaningful generalization of the findings. Key words: Supply chain integration, Operational performance, Manufacturing firms

The objective of the study was to establish the relationship between market growth strategies and performance of Insurance Companies during Covid-19 in Kenya. The study investigated various dimensions of market growth strategies such as product development, market development as well as online shares and innovations. The research employed a cross-sectional research design and data was collected among all Insurance Companies in Kenya. Primary data was collected through the use of questionnaire method and the analysis was done using descriptive statistics and regression analysis models. The findings revealed that the adoption of market growth strategies improve the performance of the insurance companies in Nairobi Kenya. The study also established that market growth promoted performance in terms of profitability, high customer value, high quality services, smooth operations, increased market share, low costs of operations and increased customer base. The study also found that market development strategies are most critical in enhancing customer base through building customer loyalty. Market development strategies play an important role in building customer base, enhancing the company’s smooth operations and increased market share. The results established that market development strategies did not affect the cost of operations of the companies and it helps improved performance of the companies. The study concluded that Insurance Companies should adopt market growth strategies to promote their performance during Covid-19 pandemic. The research recommends that organizations top management and policy makers should make efforts to adopt market growth strategies such as diversification and innovation in order to promote their performance.