Impact of Financial Inclusion on Welfare of Persons Living with Disability in Kenya
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Date
2024-07
Journal Title
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Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
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).
Description
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Citation
Katam, C. C., & Njenga, P. M. (2024). Impact of financial inclusion on welfare of persons living with disability in Kenya. Reviewed Journal of Social Science & Humanities, 5 (1), 708 – 717.