Abstract:
Financial management is a crucial functional aspect of management and is vital for any company to actualize its goals. Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOS) play a vital role in financial inclusion, particularly in rural areas. However, despite their growth across Kenya, Kirinyaga County's SACCOS sector hasn't shown the same level of development compared to neighboring counties like Nyeri Embu and Meru. This study investigated the influence of financial management strategies on SACCOS growth in Kirinyaga County. It demonstrate that effective management of working capital, investments, loans, internal controls and financial structure can contribute to SACCOS growth. Understanding the factors influencing SACCOS growth is crucial for developing targeted strategies to enhance their performance and financial inclusion in Kirinyaga County. There was adoption of descriptive cross sectional research design to evaluate the impact of the four factors mentioned earlier and the influence of financial structure on SACCO growth. Deposit-taking SACCOS in Kirinyaga County was the target population of this study. Board Members of governors, accountants, auditors and managers were the respondents in this study. The study used 10% sampling technique formula (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003). Self-administered questionnaires, interviews, and direct observation were used to gather the data. The growth of the firm theory guided the study aside from other theories that explained aspects like internal control within a firm. The data was examined through descriptive statistics. The magnitude and direction of relationships were established by multiple regression. In data analysis, the software used was Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The collected data was edited to ensure consistency across the respondents and to locate any omissions. The results of this study are beneficial to numerous stakeholders including SACCO managers that can use the information to improve internal controls, re-evaluate their debt management practices, and seek out viable investments based on their growth objectives. Results implied that financial management practices have a positive influence on SACCOS growth. For instance, having a cash surplus showed a favorable correlation, while debt management practices such as monitoring borrowers had a weak yet positive correlation.
Description:
A project submitted to the school of co-operative and community development in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of master degree in cooperative management, the co-operative university of Kenya.
