Background: National and county governments in Kenya have introduced various health insurance schemes to protect households against financial hardship as a result of large health expenditure. This study examines the relationship between health insurance and medicine expenditure in eight counties in Kenya. Methods: A cross-sectional study of collected primary data via household survey in eight counties was performed. Three measures of medicine expenditure were analysed: the probability of any out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) on medicines in the last 4 weeks; amount of OOPE on medicines; and OOPE on medicines as a proportion of total OOPE on health. Results: Out of the 452 individuals, those with health insurance (n = 225) were significantly different from individuals without health insurance (n = 227): overall, they were older, had a higher level of educational attainment and possessed more assets. Adjusting for covariates, individuals with health insurance had a reduced probability of OOPE on medicines (0.40, CI95% 0.197-0.827) and spent proportionally less
Purpose: This study is aimed at analysing the effect of financial distress on the profitability of tier three commercial banks in Kenya.Methodology: Financial distress was proxied using non-performing loans, leverage and liquidity. Profitability was indicated using return on assets ratio. The study sampled twenty commercial banks and used casual research design. The study estimated a multiple regression linear model.Results: The study established that non-performing loans have a negative and statistically significant effect, Leverage had a positive and statistically significant effect while Liquidity had a positive and statistically insignificant effect on the profitability of tier three commercial banks in Kenya.
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to establish the effect of determinants of access to microcredit on financial performance of retailing SMEs in Wajir County, Kenya.Methodology: The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population comprised of all the 5000 retailing small and medium enterprises in Wajir County where the units of analysis were the SME owners. The study used stratified random sampling and simple random sampling technique to come up with the sample. The target population was stratified into 6 strata (the 6 sub-counties in Wajir County). Further, random sampling was used to select 146 SMEs from each sub-county. The study used primary data which was largely quantitative and descriptive in nature. The questionnaires were self-administered with the help of two research assistants. The data analysis was undertaken using SPSS Version 20 where the statistics generated included descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.Results: The study findings revealed that savings, meeting the eligibility criterion, loan structuring and some socio economic characteristics positively and significantly affected the financial performance of SMEs in Wajir County.Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: the study recommended that SMEs should take the initiative to increase the amount they saved so that they could increase their borrowing capacity. The study also recommended that SME owners needed to take the initiative of ensuring that they were all the time able to meet the necessary requirements needed for obtaining loans especially their documentation, business and repayment plans and aim at ensuring that they acquired the necessary collateral. It was further recommended that MFIs needed to ensure that the loan structure presented to SMEs were favorable. The study also recommended that it was necessary for SMEs to expand/grow their asset base so as to increase the ability to repay the loans. They also needed to expand their networks especially within the financial institutions circles so that they could increase the trust the MFIs had on them and for easy considerations for loans.
Objectives This study aims to describe trends and estimate impact of county-level universal health coverage expansion in Kenya on household availability of non-communicable disease medicines, medicine obtainment at public hospitals and proportion of medicines obtained free of charge. Methods Data from phone surveillance of households in eight Kenyan counties between December 2016 and September 2019 were used. Three primary outcomes related to access were assessed based on patient report: availability of non-communicable disease medicines at the household; non-communicable disease medicine obtainment at a public hospital versus a different outlet; and non-communicable disease medicine obtainment free of cost versus at a non-zero price. Mixed models adjusting for fixed and random effects were used to estimate associations between outcomes of interest and UHC exposure. Results The 197 respondents with universal health coverage were similar on all demographic factors to the 415 respondents with no universal health coverage. Private chemists were the most popular place of purchase throughout the study. Adjusting for demographic factors, county and time fixed effects, there was a significant increase in free medicines (aOR 2.55, 95% CI 1.73, 3.76), significant decrease in medicine obtainment at public hospitals (aOR 0.68, 95% CI 0.47, 0.97), and no impact on the availability of non-communicable disease medicines in households (aβ -0.004, 95% CI -0.058, 0.050) with universal health coverage. Conclusions Access to universal health coverage caused a significant increase in free non-communicable disease medicines, indicating financial risk protection. Interestingly, this is not accompanied with increases in public hospitals purchases or household availability of non-communicable disease medicines, with public health centers playing a greater role in supply of free medicines. This raises the question as to the status of supply-side investments at the public hospitals, to facilitate availability of quality-assured medicines.
Although the financial system is a vital component of the socio-economic development of any nation, most Kenyans lack access to formal financial credit services. This arises due to the cause of putting up bank branches in the rural areas is deemed not economically viable. Most banks have partnered with Mobile Network Operators to help mitigate this problem by introducing the use of Mobile banking (M-banking) technology in accessing vital banking services such as financial credit. However, this effort may not attain success if the factors inhibiting the use of M-banking technology have not been assessed. The purpose of this study was to establish the effect of Mobile banking adoption on financial credit accessibility by residents in Wote sub-county. This study was necessitated by the current emerging trend of accessing financial credit through the Mobile banking system. This study adopted a technology acceptance model to establish the effects of adopting mobile banking and its application in use of banking services among residents of Wote sub-county. The study was guided by the following objectives: To establish the effect of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived risk of using mobile banking technology and financial credit accessibility in Wote sub-county, Makueni county, Kenya. Descriptive research design was employed in which the study population comprised the residents of Wote sub-county. The target population of the study consisted of 137,944 mobile money users across both banked and non-banked population in Wote sub-county and the sample size comprised of 138 participants who were selected through the use of simple random sampling technique. Data was collected using a questionnaire whose reliability was established by use of Cronbach’s Alpha. All items in the questionnaire had a score of above 0.7 which was deemed to be the acceptable threshold. The questionnaires were administered through drop and pick later method. The data collected was processed and analysed using SPSS. Descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies, standard deviation and mean scores were used. Afterwards, the research findings were presented using frequency tables, pie charts and bar graphs. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyse and draw inferences from the research data. The results indicated that perceived usefulness of mobile banking technology perceived ease of use of mobile banking technology, and perceived risk of using mobile banking technology were statistically significant in accessing of financial credit. The intervening variable- customers’ attitude- was found to be non-significant. This study recommended that both the banks and MNO’s to continuously invest in product improvement of mobile banking systems to ensure the uptake of mobile credit is enhanced. The study also recommended that the financial service providers should engage in education and extensive customer awareness on use of mobile applications to access mobile credit as well as draw up strategies to reduce the mobile phone operational costs such as the interest charged on mobile loans which are a major hindrance. Further, the banks and MNO’s should increase extra security features in their systems to increase trust in accessing mobile credit. Finally, the service providers should make mobile banking more user friendly for ease of financial credit access by incorporating graphics interface.
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