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This study sought to establish the influence of fraud risk management practices in regard to preventive, detective and corrective controls on the level of fraud occurrence on listed firms in Kenya. This is because limited research had been conducted in the context of listed firms in Kenya and limited attention paid on how corrective controls influences fraud occurrence. A causal research design was applied. Data was obtained from a sample of 275 senior managers by using structured questionnaires. The findings revealed that only preventive and corrective controls had a profound negative effect on the degree of fraud occurrence on listed companies in Kenya. Conversely, detective controls did not considerably reduce fraud occurrence on listed companies in Kenya. The key implication of the findings noted by this study is that the proper implication of the most effectual anti-fraud measures can only be realized when the management are committed to do so. Additionally, corrective controls must be seriously looked into as an effective strategy of curbing fraud since they indeed are instrumental in curbing fraud. Future studies should be extended to the public sector in regard to the government ministries and the distinctive partitions of the private sector such as the insurance, real estate, manufacturing, automobile sectors among others respectively. Moreover, future studies can explore how firm size in terms of asset size or employee size moderates the relationship between fraud risk management practices and the level of fraud occurrence.

Short-term debt is regarded as an important source of financing for Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This is because it can be easily accessed and useful during times of emergent working capital shortage. However, short-term debt is the least researched among the components of capital structure, which explains why its contribution to the financial performance of small and medium-sized businesses still lacks empirical validation especially in the Ugandan context. This paper sought to determine the effect of short-term debt on financial performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Uganda. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional research design to collect and analyse the data. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select SMEs while purposive sampling technique was used to select one key respondent from each of the sampled 453 SMEs in Uganda. Primary data was collected using survey questionnaire. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression analysis. The findings indicted that short-term debt had a negative and significant effect on financial performance of SMEs as measured by return on assets. The study provides empirical evidence to support the propositions in the extant literature that short-term debt significantly hampers financial performance of SMEs. The study recommends that SMEs should adopt low cost operation procedures to improve profitability. This would lead to accumulated profits that can be used for investment purposes as a means of driving growth among the SMEs without resorting to borrowing. This paper suggests that further research should be conducted to establish the justification for the negative and significant effect of short-term debt on financial performance using qualitative approaches.

The importance of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) cannot be underestimated. Despite their importance, they are faced with numerous challenges among them financial distress which threatens their very existence. The current research sought to establish the role of board characteristics in the financial distress suffered by Deposit Taking SACCOs in Nairobi County. The study is anchored inter alia on Agency Theory. Descriptive research design was adopted while Nairobi County was purposively chosen and a census was carried out on deposit taking SACCOs in the county. Secondary data was collected from SASRA using a data collection sheet and a panel data analysis performed using STATA software. The findings were presented using tables. The study concluded that there was a relationship between board characteristics and financial distress of Deposit Taking SACCOs where board composition, board education and board tenure have statistically significant and negative influence on financial distress. In conclusion SACCOs need to have lean boards, Board composition should also be improved by including more women on boards, there should be more inclusion of members with high and relevant education credentials, and SACCOs should have term limits for their members while an analysis too based on the Altman’s Z score models should be adopted for SACCOs. Another research may be carried out to establish other factors causing financial distress and how to turn around the SACCOs already in distress.

Renewable energy investment has been underexploited in Africa and Kenya in specific due to financing constraints arising from investor’s negative perception of the regions high investment risk and low creditworthiness which retards the degree of private capital penetration. The purpose of the study was to assess the extent to which Credit enhancement influence performance of hydroelectric energy projects in Kenya. The study was underpinned on pragmatism paradigm which allows the use of mixed method approach and descriptive correlational survey research design. Structured questionnaires and interview guide were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data from a sample size of 94 participants out of a target population of 94 subjects. Validity test was done on the instruments and a coefficient of 0.775 obtained using Content Validity Index while reliability involved pretesting of the instruments amongst the 10% of the participants and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.781 obtained. Analysis was done using both descriptive statistic of mean and standard deviation and inferential statistic of Correlation and Regression at a significance level of 0.05 with the aid of SPSS version 25 and thematic content analysis of qualitative data for triangulation. Simple linear regression and Pearson Correlation Coefficient models were used to determine the influence between independent and dependent variable and the result H0: Credit enhancement does not significantly influence performance of hydroelectric energy projects in Kenya was rejected since P=0.000<0.05.Therefore the study concluded that there is significant influence of credit enhancement on performance of hydroelectric energy projects in Kenya. It is recommended that Project management and policy makers should integrate appropriate credit enhancement instruments to improve performance of hydroelectric energy projects besides developing targeted policies for strengthening implementation of the credit enhancement instruments to boost investors and lenders confidence. Further research should be carried out on the determinants influencing effective utilization of credit enhancement in power projects in Kenya.

The study investigated the whether the default measures of liquidity and solvency are associated and whether default measures are related to firm profitability. A total of 41 firms were selected to be in the study sample out of 46 non-financial listed firms in the Nairobi Securities Exchange during years 2013 to 2017 and panel data regression analysis was employed. The findings revealed that liquidity and solvency are significantly and negatively associated while the default measures lacked a significant relationship with profitability in Kenyan listed companies. The findings implied that there is no need for firms to focus too much on the relationship between default and profitability including invest heavily in liquidity in order to meet short term obligations as nowadays it is possible for firms to either convert non-cash assets quickly or borrow on short notice from financial institutions in case of an urgent need to meet liquidity shortages. These findings are consistent with the shitability theory.

This study sought to establish the influence of fraud risk management practices in regard to preventive, detective and corrective controls on the level of fraud occurrence on listed firms in Kenya. This is because limited research had been conducted in the context of listed firms in Kenya and limited attention paid on how corrective controls influences fraud occurrence. A causal research design was applied. Data was obtained from a sample of 275 senior managers by using structured questionnaires. The findings revealed that only preventive and corrective controls had a profound negative effect on the degree of fraud occurrence on listed companies in Kenya. Conversely, detective controls did not considerably reduce fraud occurrence on listed companies in Kenya. The key implication of the findings noted by this study is that the proper implication of the most effectual anti-fraud measures can only be realized when the management are committed to do so. Additionally, corrective controls must be seriously looked into as an effective strategy of curbing fraud since they indeed are instrumental in curbing fraud. Future studies should be extended to the public sector in regard to the government ministries and the distinctive partitions of the private sector such as the insurance, real estate, manufacturing, automobile sectors among others respectively. Moreover, future studies can explore how firm size in terms of asset size or employee size moderates the relationship between fraud risk management practices and the level of fraud occurrence.

The importance of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) cannot be underestimated. Despite their importance, they are faced with numerous challenges among them financial distress which threatens their very existence. The current research sought to establish the role of board characteristics in the financial distress suffered by Deposit Taking SACCOs in Nairobi County. The study is anchored inter alia on Agency Theory. Descriptive research design was adopted while Nairobi County was purposively chosen and a census was carried out on deposit taking SACCOs in the county. Secondary data was collected from SASRA using a data collection sheet and a panel data analysis performed using STATA software. The findings were presented using tables. The study concluded that there was a relationship between board characteristics and financial distress of Deposit Taking SACCOs where board composition, board education and board tenure have statistically significant and negative influence on financial distress. In conclusion SACCOs need to have lean boards, Board composition should also be improved by including more women on boards, there should be more inclusion of members with high and relevant education credentials, and SACCOs should have term limits for their members while an analysis too based on the Altman’s Z score models should be adopted for SACCOs. Another research may be carried out to establish other factors causing financial distress and how to turn around the SACCOs already in distress.

Short-term debt is regarded as an important source of financing for Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This is because it can be easily accessed and useful during times of emergent working capital shortage. However, short-term debt is the least researched among the components of capital structure, which explains why its contribution to the financial performance of small and medium-sized businesses still lacks empirical validation especially in the Ugandan context. This paper sought to determine the effect of short-term debt on financial performance of Small and Medium Enterprises in Uganda. The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional research design to collect and analyse the data. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select SMEs while purposive sampling technique was used to select one key respondent from each of the sampled 453 SMEs in Uganda. Primary data was collected using survey questionnaire. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and simple linear regression analysis. The findings indicted that short-term debt had a negative and significant effect on financial performance of SMEs as measured by return on assets. The study provides empirical evidence to support the propositions in the extant literature that short-term debt significantly hampers financial performance of SMEs. The study recommends that SMEs should adopt low cost operation procedures to improve profitability. This would lead to accumulated profits that can be used for investment purposes as a means of driving growth among the SMEs without resorting to borrowing. This paper suggests that further research should be conducted to establish the justification for the negative and significant effect of short-term debt on financial performance using qualitative approaches.

Renewable energy investment has been underexploited in Africa and Kenya in specific due to financing constraints arising from investor’s negative perception of the regions high investment risk and low creditworthiness which retards the degree of private capital penetration. The purpose of the study was to assess the extent to which Credit enhancement influence performance of hydroelectric energy projects in Kenya. The study was underpinned on pragmatism paradigm which allows the use of mixed method approach and descriptive correlational survey research design. Structured questionnaires and interview guide were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data from a sample size of 94 participants out of a target population of 94 subjects. Validity test was done on the instruments and a coefficient of 0.775 obtained using Content Validity Index while reliability involved pretesting of the instruments amongst the 10% of the participants and Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.781 obtained. Analysis was done using both descriptive statistic of mean and standard deviation and inferential statistic of Correlation and Regression at a significance level of 0.05 with the aid of SPSS version 25 and thematic content analysis of qualitative data for triangulation. Simple linear regression and Pearson Correlation Coefficient models were used to determine the influence between independent and dependent variable and the result H0: Credit enhancement does not significantly influence performance of hydroelectric energy projects in Kenya was rejected since P=0.000<0.05.Therefore the study concluded that there is significant influence of credit enhancement on performance of hydroelectric energy projects in Kenya. It is recommended that Project management and policy makers should integrate appropriate credit enhancement instruments to improve performance of hydroelectric energy projects besides developing targeted policies for strengthening implementation of the credit enhancement instruments to boost investors and lenders confidence. Further research should be carried out on the determinants influencing effective utilization of credit enhancement in power projects in Kenya.

The study investigated the whether the default measures of liquidity and solvency are associated and whether default measures are related to firm profitability. A total of 41 firms were selected to be in the study sample out of 46 non-financial listed firms in the Nairobi Securities Exchange during years 2013 to 2017 and panel data regression analysis was employed. The findings revealed that liquidity and solvency are significantly and negatively associated while the default measures lacked a significant relationship with profitability in Kenyan listed companies. The findings implied that there is no need for firms to focus too much on the relationship between default and profitability including invest heavily in liquidity in order to meet short term obligations as nowadays it is possible for firms to either convert non-cash assets quickly or borrow on short notice from financial institutions in case of an urgent need to meet liquidity shortages. These findings are consistent with the shitability theory.