Browsing by Author "Njenga, Peter Miring'u"

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    Agricultural export supply response to price and non-price Variables: a case of horticultural sub-sector in Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2015) Njenga, Peter Miring'u
    ABSTRACT Kenya has a long history of growing horticultural crops for both domestic and export markets. The climatic conditions are highly varied supporting the growth of a wide range of horticultural crops. The horticultural sector currently ranks as one of the economy's fastest growing sectors and is ranked as the second leading foreign exchange earner after tea. The sub-sector is a major source of livelihood to smallholder farmers and has been identified as a key 'driver' towards the realization of "Vision 2030" which envisages Kenya as a middle income economy and a semiindustrialized country by the year 2030. Although horticultural exports have been contributing to increased rural incomes and reduction of rural poverty in Kenya, horticultural exports remain a small fraction of Kenya's overall export sector. This produce is far from saturating world demand. The understanding of the responsiveness of horticultural export supply to changes in price and non-price factors is crucial for formulating a sound horticultural export specific policy package. The key issue is how urgently Kenya should increase horticultural exports supply and make such an increment sustainable. This study investigated the effect of price and non-price variables on horticultural export supply in Kenya and also drew policy implications from the findings. Time series secondary data for the period between 1973 and 2010 was used. The study used the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) estimation procedure which tested for the existence of a non-spurious long-run relationship between price and non-price factors and horticultural export supply response. Diagnostic tests were also carried out. The Error Correction Term lagged once was negative and statistically significant indicating high speed of adjustment. In the long-run, the empirical findings show that horticultural export supply responds positively to agricultural credit, classified road network, foreign direct investment, trade openness and EurepGap. The horticultural exports had elastic response on all factors apart from that of foreign direct investment which was inelastic, otherwise all were statistically significant. Coefficients for relative producer price and income per capita were statistically significant and had negative effect on horticultural export supply. This study recommends that more data and information on prices and market connections should be made available so as to make horticultural export suppliers to be well informed on any price fluctuation. There should be construction and maintenance of rural access roads. Embassies abroad and private companies should carry out promotions through trade fairs and exhibitions so as to maintain and improve on this low horticultural export supply response with respect to relative producer price. The study further recommends provision of appropriate credit packages for horticultural producers and dissemination of information on available sources of funding. Work permits should be provided to genuine foreign investors who are interested in horticultural export business. Government should also enhance the capacity of public research institutions. Monitoring and evaluation of trade flows should be encouraged. Where feasible, private sector players should be facilitated to undertake self-regulation and conform to international market requirements.
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    Impact of Financial Inclusion on Welfare of Persons Living with Disability in Kenya
    (Kenyatta University, 2024-07) Katam, Catherine Chepkemoi; Njenga, Peter Miring'u
    Financial services are difficult for people with impairments to obtain in both developed and developing countries. This is because they are not seen as a sizable consumer base by banks and other financial institutions. More than 60% of persons with disability in Kenya are impoverished. The Kenyan government has started a number of programs to help persons with disabilities with their financial circumstances. A cash transfer scheme that encourages the use of assistive equipment is one of these. Additionally, there are subsidies and grants available to assist with the costs of schooling. But raising awareness of these advantages is still difficult, particularly in rural regions. Despite these measures there is still a challenge of financial inclusion especially among the mainstream financial institutions. A large number of disabled individuals in Kenya are presently left out in terms of financial access from mainstream financial institutions like banks because the target audience is restricted to those who have severe disabilities. Despite efforts to implement disability laws, there are still issues with financial inclusion for persons with disabilities in Kenya. This study aimed to investigate the financial inclusion and welfare of households with disabled individuals in Kenya. The specific objectives were to determine the impact of financial inclusion on the welfare of persons with disabilities, to assess the effect of household expenditure on their welfare, and to evaluate the effect of education empowerment on their welfare. The study was based on financial growth theory, inclusion theory, consumer behavior theory, and vulnerability group theory. An explanatory research design was used to clarify the relationship between variables, and the study relied on secondary data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the 2019 Census report, the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey, and Financial Access surveys. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed to determine the impact of financial inclusion on the household welfare of individuals with disabilities residing in Kenya. The data set was found to be suitable for analysis after diagnostic tests such as residual autocorrelation, heteroscedasticity of the error term, normality, and multicollinearity were performed. Based on the study's findings, it was determined that the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.791 while the adjusted R2 was 0.759. From the finding, it can be concluded that; financial inclusion, household expenditure and education empowerment explains 75.9 percent of the changes in the welfare of persons with disabilities. The results show that persons with disabilities' welfare increases significantly (r=0.0520, p<.05) with each unit increase in financial inclusion. According to the findings, a unit increase in household expenditure increases persons with disabilities’ welfare in a nonsignificant way (r=0.011, p>.05). Lastly, the study's results show that persons with disabilities' wellbeing significantly increases with each unit rise in education empowerment (r=0.0280, p<.05).