Financial Awareness Training

The finance department at Lancashire Care has always delivered financial training to support budget holders, clinicians and managers. The COVID–19 pandemic threatened to curtail these important interactions. Understandably financial training wasn’t a priority as the pandemic manifested but as the months progressed and a sense of routine developed, clinicians reached out to the finance department to request some financial awareness training. It demonstrated that whilst the NHS has had to cope and manage with the ‘greatest threat to mental health since the second world war’ (Guardian, Dec 2020), clinical and finance colleagues decided that the show must go on! This article describes the training that was delivered and how finance departments can still interact and engage with non-finance colleagues during these challenging times.

Training vs. informal financial services for the promotion of financial literacy and inclusion in Uganda

Financial education aims to promote financial inclusion by increasing understanding and use of formal financial services. Despite such training, participation in informal financial practices remains high relative to formal ones in countries like Uganda. A cross-sectional sample survey of economically active urban financial service users is used to test whether financial education through formal training is associated with financial literacy (FL) and FL is associated with increased use of financial services, especially formal ones. The findings indicate that formal financial training is significantly associated with FL, and that higher FL is associated with higher use of both formal and informal financial services. The unexpectedly strong association of the use of informal financial services with financial literacy suggests that informal financial services may have a more complementary role than a simple model of financial formalization would imply. The study suggests that promoting informal financial services may be more efficient in raising financial literacy and inclusion than financial training.

PARTICIPATORY MANAGEMENT IN IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF MADRASAH

The essence of participatory management is covered in all concepts, namely: First, the existence of planning, organizing, directing, and monitoring activities; Second, there is more than one person or party involved; Third, there is a goal to be achieved; Fourth, there is the use of organizational resources, both members and other resources; Fifth, the four points above lead to the achievement of goals effectively and efficiently. This article aims to analyze the implementation of participatory management in planning, decision making, implementation and evaluation for quality improvement in Madrasahs in Tulang Bawang district, Lampung Province. This research was conducted at Madrasahs in Tulang Bawang district, Lampung. This study uses a qualitative method. Data collection techniques using in-depth interviews, observation and documentation. Research sources included the head of the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Tulang Bawang district, a sample of madrasah heads, deputy head of madrasah, and students. Data analysis was carried out interactively and continued continuously to completion.The results showed that 1) planning, namely an assessment of the madrasah environment, needs to be carried out at the beginning. The environmental assessment is divided into two, the first is an analysis of the internal environment, this means an analysis that occurs within the madrasa environment. Second, external environmental assessment means parties outside the madrasah.Then the determination of the strategic direction which is an activity to formulate or review the direction of organizational goals that are contained in the vision, mission and values in educational institutions. Madrasahs in Tulang Bawang Regency have made a neat and structured draft. So that at any time it can be read or studied to implement participatory management in Madrasahs in Tulang Bawang Regency. Furthermore, quality objectives are the goals or targets of a madrasah in carrying out a process that is to be achieved within a certain period of time. The targets in Madrasahs in Tulang Bawang Regency are the achievement of an ideal study group ratio with an ideal learning space, the absorption of the number of students from various components of society as educational customers. increase in the acquisition of National exam and exam scores every year. the school institution that is the choice of the community because of the achievement that is its priority. the achievement of complete facilities and infrastructure in accordance with the ratio of the number of students, madrasah in Tulang Bawang Lampung district as the madrasah that is most loved, and in demand by the community. 3) decision making, namely, decision making in the context of implementing participatory management programs in a sub-focus to mobilize funding resource planning, administrative activities, coordination and program elaboration. In driving the planning of financial resources, administrative activities, coordination and program elaboration. The program that has been carried out by Kasi Mapenda / Penmad and external parties at Madrasahs in Tulang Bawang Regency prioritizes models, because the model is a pattern of something to be made or produced. 4) evaluation, which aims to determine the progress of the organization, as well as the obstacles and challenges faced in implementing strategic management. the results of the evaluation will be used as feedback to the organization to determine the achievement of quality implementation. The program that has been carried out by Kasi Mapenda / Penmad and external parties is conducting coordination meetings with UPA and the Education Office related to the quality of graduation, conducting BOS reporting financial training activities with the Palembang Training Center, monitoring all Madrasahs related to 8 Education Standards, in collaboration with UPA Team. as well as the obstacles and challenges faced in implementing strategic management. the results of the evaluation will be used as feedback to the organization to determine the achievement of quality implementation. The program that has been carried out by Kasi Mapenda / Penmad and external parties is conducting coordination meetings with UPA and the Education Office related to the quality of graduation, conducting BOS reporting financial training activities with the Palembang Training Center, monitoring all Madrasahs related to 8 Education Standards, in collaboration with UPA Team. as well as the obstacles and challenges faced in implementing strategic management. the results of the evaluation will be used as feedback to the organization to determine the achievement of quality implementation. The program that has been carried out by Kasi Mapenda / Penmad and external parties is conducting coordination meetings with UPA and the Education Office related to the quality of graduation, conducting BOS reporting financial training activities with the Palembang Training Center, monitoring all Madrasahs related to 8 Education Standards, in collaboration with UPA Team

Microfinance Services and Performance of Women Owned Business Enterprises in Busia County, Kenya

The main purpose of this study was to determine the effects of microfinance services on women owned enterprises in Busia County. The study specific objectives included, to establish the effects of credit on performance of women owned business enterprises in Busia County, determine the effects of financial training on the performance of women owned enterprises in Busia County, examination of the effects of savings on performance of women owned business enterprises ,conceptualization of the effects of social capital on the performance of women owned business enterprises and examine the effects of legal framework on the inclusive business enterprises performance of women owned enterprises in Busia County. The study was guided mainly by the resource - based view theory and institutional theory, among others. The study adopted a descriptive survey research designs while study target population was 500 women owned entrepreneurs in Busia County, Kenya. Stratified random sampling technique was used and the sample size constituted 20% of the total target population thus making a simple size of 100 respondents for this study. The respondents were purposively selected women entrepreneurs, customers of the specific selected microfinance institutions found within Busia county business ecosystem. The questionnaires were used as a tool for primary data collection respectively, both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methodologies were applied by use of spss version 23.0.The study findings revealed that, an increase in credit, finance training, social capital, savings and legal framework by one unit leads to an increase in performance by 0.502, 0.124, 0.081, 0.236, and 0.059 units respectively with a p –value of < 0.05 for each variable. Based on the study findings the researcher can conclude that, women owned enterprises are key drivers to the economic development in Kenya and the study recommends that training program should be emphasized to enhance the financial literacy management for exemplary performance of the enterprises. Savings, social capital, financial training, legal framework and credit services significantly influences performances of women-owned business enterprises. According to the research findings, the frequency of trainings should be increased to keep them abreast with modern methodologies for better performance and financial training programs for women owned business enterprises should be designed to meet the standards needs for women entrepreneurs’ and more so the aspiring new entrants.

Women are invisible?! A literature survey on gender gap and financial training

Most of the existing definitions and measurements of financial literacy have been tailored for developed countries. Although financial literacy and financial behaviour are usually assessed at the household level, the gender dimension of household agents is less explored which may overshadow the women’s low level of financial literacy. This paper is a selective systematic review aiming to survey the existing literature on financial training where the focus is on two main issues, namely, financial training and gender disparity in financial literacy. Based on a thorough literature review, we identify research gaps in each of these dimensions. The identified gaps are then used to formulate two promising research ideas. Specifically, the promising research ideas seek to investigate the gender disparity and propose a novel method for financial training.

INFLUENCE OF FINANCIAL LINKAGES ON GROWTH OF INFORMAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN HOMA BAY COUNTY OF KENYA

Financial linkage is an emerging form of partnership widely practiced between NGOs, formal and informal financial institutions in developing countries. The existing forms include but not limited to financial training, Savings products and Credit Information Sharing (CIS). Informal financial institutions enter into such linkages with an aim of growing the volumes of credit accessed. In Homa Bay County, various forms of financial linkages have emerged with statistics indicating unstable growth in volumes of credit accessed by informal financial institutions. According to Homa bay Women Sacco, the loan disbursed grew by 88.46% between 2015 and 2017. This is in tandem with the institutional theory of complementarity adopted by this study. However, studies on formal-informal financial institutions’ relationship and contribution of financial linkages to credit access in developing countries have elicited divergent views. Some reveal that financial linkages offer the best solution to promoting credit access while others indicate that the linkages may reduce access to credit and impact negatively on growth of the institutions. It is on this basis that the study sought to establish the influence of the emerging linkages on growth of informal financial institutions in Homa Bay County. The study was based on the positivists approach to conceptualization and was guided by correlational research design. A total of 300 respondents were selected using stratified sampling technique. Both open and closed-ended pre-tested questionnaires were used to collect primary data. Secondary data were from relevant documents of the institutions. The desired relationships were established through multiple regressions while bivariate associations were determined using Correlational analysis. The study revealed that volumes of group savings and Credit information sharing both had significant relationships with the growth of informal financial institutions. On the other hand, financial training had an insignificant negative relationship with access to credit by the institutions, the negative relationship suggests that through training, the informal financial institution’s managers strengthen their internal management mechanisms, thus become less dependent on borrowed funds for their activities. The study thus recommends that the three forms of linkages be strengthened to enhance growth of the institutions in Homa Bay County. KEY WORDS: Financial Linkages, Growth, Institutions, County, Kenya

The effect of financial literacy towards financial inclusion through financial training

The current study aimed to describe the influence of financial literacy on financial inclusion that mediated by financial training. It focused on Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Respondents in the study were 54 respondents that were taken from 119 MSMEs in Kupang city, Indonesia. The analysis applied path analysis technique. It was to determine the direct or indirect relationship with SPSS Version 20. Analysis results have shown that financial literacy has got a direct and significant impact on financial inclusion. Its contribution to financial training is 33%. In the other side, the contribution of financial literacy towards inclusion is 32%. Furthermore, financial training has mediated the relationship between financial literacy and financial inclusion. The presentation is 11%. This phenomenon shows that in the future, it is necessary to increase the frequency of financial training for MSMEs actors in Kupang city, Indonesia. The training has to be conducted to increase financial inclusion in understanding the knowledge of the financial product. Since the current study only examined financial literacy, financial inclusion, and financial training, it is suggested that the future researches may examine other aspects such as transparency, accountability, and quality of financial statements.