BSSF Research Projects (2021)

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11071/12525

Browse

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14

Application of technical analysis in the forex market: Comparison of technical trading rules in developed and emerging markets
(Strathmore University, 2021) Lelei, Elaine Cherop
This paper examines the application of technical analysis in the forex market. It particularly looks at the comparison of technical trading rules in developed and emerging markets. In order to assess the performance, three momentum-based indicators are chosen, namely Moving Average Convergence Divergence, Relative Strength Index and Moving Average Crossover, while one volume indicator is chosen, namely Money Flow Index. To gauge the performance of the indicators, the parameters of each of the indicators is subjected to seven currency pairs which were, EURIUSD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY and USD/CNY for developed markets and USD/ZAR, USD/MXN and USD/TR Y for emerging markets. The daily closing prices of each of the currency pairs are used, and based on the parameters of the individual indicator, a buy or sell signal is conveyed by the indicator, and the profit or loss, of each of the signals is measured and summed up so that comparison of performance is possible. Daily closing prices from 2005- 2020 are used. The findings suggest emerging markets are more profitable than the developed markets.
Determinants of financial inclusion in sub-Saharan Africa
(Strathmore University, 2021) Odhiambo, Trevor Ooko
Financial exclusion is the lack of access by clients to appropriate low cost, fair and safe financial products and services. Leyshon and Thrift explained it as the processes that are in place to prevent individuals or a section of individuals from gaining access to the formal financial system. Individuals being excluded from banking services generate negative socioeconomic consequences for economies (Levine, 1993). Defining financial exclusion prompts the need to elaborate on financial inclusion as they go hand in hand. Financial inclusion is the ease of access, availability and consumption of the services offered by the financial system of an economy. This brings about the importance of financial inclusion in a country as it improves sustainability and an economy's stability. The definition of financial inclusion gives us a scope which includes accessibility, availability and consumption of the services offered by the financial system particularly the banking industry.
Determinants of method of payment in mergers and acquisitions and their agency implications
(Strathmore University, 2021) Maua, Warren
This study is expected to be useful to industry regulators like competition authorities, tax collection agencies and capital market regulators as it will provide some insight for deeper scrutiny of proposed mergers and acquisitions to ensure both parties in the transaction obtain a fair value by mitigating effects of infonnation asymmetry. It could inform future regulation with respect to M&Apractices in Kenya and Africa.Investmentbankersand other transactional advisors could benefit from this study. They provide advisory serv.ices to acquirers and targets in Africa, and this study and others like it will enable them to understand and antic.ipate their clients' ideal M&A structure on a deeper level. Also, shareholders and managers of companies that anticipate M&As involving their companies will obtain a different perspective of the thought process of their prospective counterpoises as they determine the method of payment to use and the implications of the chosen method on theh companies' operations and marl<:et performance. Finally, I hope this study inspires future academic studies aboutM&As in Africa
Do high school national examination final grades predict undergraduate performance?
(Strathmore University, 2021) Githaiga, Brian Gachungi
The university placement system in Kenya places great emphasis on Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) Examination. This is the final exam through which high school students are evaluated throughout the country. This study looks into the ability of these examination results to predict university performance using data from a private university in Kenya. Scarce research in the area suggests KCSE offers little value in - predicting university pe1formance. In this study, we test the predictive value of KCSE results on year-by-year university performance and cumulative 4-year performance. The data also allows comparison of KCSE with a basic aptitude test. Results suggests that KCSE results offer some value in predicting university performance. The results also suggest there is little difference in the predictive ability of KCSE on year-on-year pe1formance compared to the cumulative university performance
Education advantages in health: Exploring the factors influencing better health for the educated in East Africa
(Strathmore University, 2021) Kaburi, Arthur Boera
The East African region (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda) faces several country specific stumbling blocks that hamper socio-economic growth within the borders, common across the region is the advancements in health and education over the years. This study contributes to the literature interlinking education and health by applying new estimation techniques and panel causality testing using data from five Eastern African countries from 1989 to 2018. Employing a concentrated approach for East Africa, deviating from Westernized datasets. Using the variables Life Expectancy at Birth as representative of the dependent variables and Primary School Enrolment for the independent variable, there is considerable evidence of education insignificantly contributing to the Health of individuals in East Africa. Primary School Enrolment is not consequential to influence a panel granger-causality for the dependent variable. These results are of specific importance to proposed policy amendments to Education and Health policies across the five states.
An empirical study on the intention to use open banking in Kenya
(Strathmore University, 2021) Sabula, Alvin Kemuel
The banking relationship is perceived as a closed one between bank and customer. However, the arrival of open banking has challenged that closed model. Open banking involves the sharing of customer data with third parties as directed and initiated by customers. This sharing assumes that customers "own" their banking data and may therefore reap the advantages of such ownership. the most important goal this paper is to formulate the concept of Open Banking and, thus, to organize the inspiration for the whole analysis. Unambiguous meanings of the key terms are not just important for delimiting the examined issues from other related issues in Open Banking yet additionally fundamental for guaranteeing the consistency of the estimation and demonstrating approaches proposed later through review method. through survey technique. The banking system in Kenya, as an emerging economy, is considered an economy stuck to traditional banking, but providing banking facilities to the 'unbanked' in Kenya has proven difficult. Consumers aren't able to change to new, improved technology-based products, with technology readiness defined as "people's propensity to embrace and use new technologies for accomplishing goals in society both professionally and reception, the stickiness to traditional banking remains highly significant. to review the utilization intention for open banking in Kenya, a primary survey was conducted using the convenience sampling technique through a structured questionnaire. Software SPSS 22.0 was wont to analyze the info gathered from the survey. The results of the analysis demonstrate that the genera/level of Open Banking knowledge and technology readiness is a smaller amount than 60%. The outcomes infer that buyers are not as prepared to receive innovation, which should be considered by banks while doing product improvement and contributing changes to create consumer loyalty. The consumer-financial services relationship in terms of PCV and UNT for open banking shows Kenya is not prepared for Open Banking due to the profoundly huge tenacity to conventional/traditional banking.
Investment timing in African private equity: A real options analysis
(Strathmore University, 2021) Achacha, Linda Yunia
This paper modifies the standard binomial option pricing approach to real options analysis so as to incorporate exogenous volatility. Real options allow a manager to gather information about a potential investment payoff prior to investment occurring . The focal point of this paper is to uncover the value that deferral options have in regard to investment decisions and to determine the optimal investment timing given macroeconomic conditions. The results show that enhanced value is yielded by deferral options in instances of higher exogenous volatility and that the most optimal investment outcomes are achievable when there is higher volatility which is proven by the complete elimination of downward movement investment loss.
The nexus between financial markets and economic growth in frontier economies
(Strathmore University, 2021) Archibald, Kelvin Gichuru
The stock market has potential to tum a country's fortunes. With proper organization and robust structures, the market can channel a county's savings and investments to deserving companies which would in tum, help develop the economy. Understanding how the stock market influences economic growth is important in formulating policies that would help make it more attractive to investors and more efficient in its allocation of resources. This paper undertakes to establish the quantitative effect of the stock market on economic growth and determine whether there is a long-term relationship between the two. A linear ordinary least squares model is used to achieve the first objective while the Johansen cointegrating test is used to achieve the second. The paper then offers recommendations, based on the findings, and provides possible areas of further research.
The Nexus between financial soundness indicators for commercial banks in Kenya
(Strathmore University, 2021) Munene, Judy Mukiri
The Banking sector stability and soundness is paramount in the achievement of a sustainable and stable economic growth and is also of prime interest to various investors and policy makers. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the interrelatedness of financial soundness indicators using the CAMEL indicators, across the overall banking sector in Kenya and to compare the interrelatedness of these indicators in a tier analysis using data for the period between 2001 and 2018. The study employed fishers unit root test to first test for the stationarity of the variables, both endogenous variables (bank specific) and exogenous variables (macroeconomic), where some variables were stationary at level and others at first differencing. Panel V AR model was used to test for the interrelatedness between the Financial Stability Indicators. The results suggest that for the overall banking sector and the different tiers, there is a significant interdependence between the indicators.
The relationship between manufacturing and agriculture sectors in Kenya
(Strathmore University, 2021) Muiruri, Joan Mukami
Agriculture has the potential to transform the economy in a developing country and subsequently other key sectors through forward and backwc1rd linkages. Understanding the nature of the relationship that exists between manufacturing and agriculture is important as Kenya aims to transform its manufacturing sector. The aim of this study ·was to establish the nature of the relationship between the manufacturing and agricultural sector in Kenya and to identify hovv shocks in other factors determines changes in the two sectors. Manufacturing value added, agriculture value added, employment ·within the respective sectors and macroeconomic factors were considered for this study. To meet the first objective, this study employed the Granger causality test and a vector error correction model to establish the nature of the long-runrelationship between the two sectors. Impulse response Functions were used to identify how shocks in employment determines changes in the two sectors. The results of the granger causality identified the presence of a forrvard linkage from agriculture to manufacturing. VECM results found the existence of a positive long-run effect of agriculture on manufacturing. The Impulse response fimctions fitrther identified anegative long-run effect of manufacturing on agriculture. These results identified the need for government to intervene in both sectors as it pursues growth to prevent unforeseen results. Policies employed should encourage the forward linkage from agriculture to manufacturing.
Robustness of risk based capital modelling in Kenya: A comparative study of Kenya’s and Malaysia’s risk based capital frameworks
(Strathmore University, 2021) Miano, Moureen Njeri
Many countries are taking a keen interest in monitoring the capital adequacy ratio of the operating insurance counh·ies. This has led to the development of different frameworks to measure capital risk e.g Solvency II, Risk Based Capital (RBC). Though most of these frameworks have been formulated by developed countries, other nations are formulating frameworks to suit their needs based on the nature of the insurance sector instead of adopting a "one-size fits all model". Some of these counh·ies include: South Africa, Malaysia, Kenya. Kenya's insurance sector is fairly young hence the Insurance Regulatory Authority began developing a Risk Based Capital framework recently. This paper compares tl1e robustness of tl1e Risk Based Capital frameworks between Kenya and Malaysia since tl1e latter's framework has been in existence for a longer period. The comparison will help in tl1e validation of Kenya's framework if there are similarities between tl1e capital adequacy ratios .
Scenario modelling of the seasonality of food availability in Kenya
(Strathmore University, 2021) Mbugua, Margaret Wambui-
The Agriculture sector is the backbone of the Kenya's economy; it contributes 25% of the Kenya's GDP. However, over the years there has been a gap between the food consumption and the food requirement needed by the people. This has emergedfrom the effects of a rapid increase in the population growth and climate changes in the country. The small-scale farmers who contribute 75% of the total agricultural market are from time to time faced with various risks like climate changes and have less resources to curb these difficulties. Previous research has been done on how to improve the technology efficiency among the farmers and assist them in making better decisions and working in conducive environment. Various models have been introduced to access the various risks and shed light on the prediction of the agricultural productivity in the country. In this paper, we used the GLOBE model where we collected Kenya's baseline diets and population projections data from World Bank, FAO and United Nations. We analysed the dependency of these variables to the expected agricultural productivity in the future. The data was used to get the estimates of the average capita food consumption over various scenarios in the year 2030. In conclusion, we estimated three scenarios of the future food consumption and food requirement using the Economic (GLOBE) Sub-Model. This allowed us to isolate the effects of population growth and climate changes to the food system in Kenya and ultimately estimate food security gap.
Song sale forecasting based on standalone music streaming a case study of spotify on popular US chart songs
(Strathmore University, 2021) Amayo, Oki Otambo
The recent rise in music streaming services and audiovisual platforms has facilitated listeners and music enthusiasts from all around the globe with even easier and cheaper access to music than ever before. However, this technological footprint has also had a significant impact onthe way music is marketed and distributed, thus affecting music revenues, record sales androyalty rates. Nevertheless, an ongoing debate seems to exist as to whether music streamingactually substitutes or complements record sales, with various research papers significantlybacking each view. This project seeks to add on to the existing literature by looking at a morerecent case study of Spotify in the United States. The plausible impact of streaming serviceson digital record sales is thus investigated using weekly data from June 2019 to June 2020,comprising the United States' Top 200 most streamed songs from Spotify as well as the Top100 most sold songs in the U.S. as observed by Rolling Stones. These variables are thenincorporated into two independent univariate time series models to account for time-lag effectsthat may exist in each, as well as investigate the plausible influence oftime on both variables.The causation effects between the two variables and their lagged forms are then subjected to a Granger-Causality test using a vector autoregressive model to investigate if there is in fact arelationship between them. Ultimately, the findings exhibited in this study seem to conclude that there is no relationship between streaming numbers and their equivalent record sales.Furthermore, both variables seem to exhibit random walk properties as both the time series models generated in this study do not seem to adequately describe the song sales and streaming paths, as demonstrated by the sample, suggesting that future values of both variables cannot accurately be predicted. From this, it is recommended that future research could instead try to focus on the effects of the two based on long-term data and instead focus on proving whether both the streaming numbers and song sale units do in fact follow a random walk process.
A study on Sukuk as an alternate investment to conventional bonds in Kenya
(Strathmore University, 2021) Alawy, Mohammed Husni
Islamic finance through products such as sukuk has become a popular source of financing especially in project finance. Unlike its substitute, the conventional fonns of financing, such as conventional bonds, it has experienced slow development based on multiple factors ranging from political, economic to social factors. The study aims to identify the potential Sukuk has to offer in the Kenyan economy such as on Public Private Partnerships initiatives in the development of infrastructure by analysing its financial perfonnance such as on yield/return on a global stage versus the perfonnance of conventional bonds listed in Kenya. The research is based on yields of sukuk from markets in Malaysia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia and bond prices in the Kenyan listed market. The researcher will point out the advantages,disadvantages and challenges of the sukuk system with illustrations from the Kenyan context.

Browse

Browsing BSSF Research Projects (2021) by Title

Results Per Page

Sort Options