EFFECT OF FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON PERFORMANCE OF HOUSING COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN NORTH RIFT COUNTIES, KENYA

Abstract

Chapter four of the constitution, the Bill of Rights in Article 43, states that every person has a right to accessible and adequate housing, and to reasonable standards of sanitation.This has prompted the Kenyan government to recognize housing as one of the big four agenda of the current Jubilee government.The study sought to determine the effect of financial management practices on performance of housing cooperatives in North Rift counties, Kenya. Specifically, the study determined the effect of budgeting techniques on performance of housing cooperatives, assessed the effect of financing decisions on housing cooperatives, examine the effect of investment appraisal techniques on performance of housing cooperatives and established the effect of working capital management on the performance of housing cooperatives in North Rift Counties in Kenya.The study was guided by budget theory,trade off theory of capital structure, investment theoryand cash conversion cycle theory. The study used causal research design. Research philosophy and paradigm was used. The target population was therefore all the 18 housing cooperatives registered by National housing cooperative union in the North Rift Region by the end of July 2019 thus adopting census survey. The study adopted a mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques in data collection and analysis. Primary data was used and the data collected using open self-structured questionnaires. Content validity was used to determine the validity while Cronabach‘s alpha coefficient was used to determine the reliability of research instrument. Data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. For descriptive statistics frequency tables, percentages and means were used and for inferential statistics correlation and regression analysis were used. The SPSS Version 20helped in the data analysis.The study findings indicated that there was a positive and significant effect of Budgeting practices on performance of Housing Co-operative Societies(β=0.172;p<0.05), there was a positive and significant effect of financing decisions on performance of Housing Co-operative Societies (β=0.456;p<0.05),there was a positive and significant effect of investment appraisal practices on performance of Housing Co-operative Societies (β=0.207; p<0.05),and that there was a positive and significant effect of working capital practices on performance of housing cooperative Societies in North Rift Region Counties (β=0.175;p<0.05). These findings will be of great significance to managers and policy makers to open an insight on the policies which will enhance the performance of the housing cooperatives.It will also provide input for further research works to be conducted on the housing cooperative societies in the future.