Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / This study assesses the challenges of microfinance and its prospects for poverty reduction in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. It further assesses the challenges faced by the regulators of microfinance in this economy. In doing so, the study informs the policy makers in Lesotho about strategies that could be adopted to improve the microfinance industry in the country for the benefit of a large sector of the population that does not have access to formal lending channels. The study examined ten informal and formal microfinance groups, five representatives of the formal institutions and two from the Government: the Central Bank of Lesotho (CBL) and the Ministry of Finance and Social Development. The results of the study reveal some fundamental lessons for microfinance industry in Maseru, Lesotho, which could be applicable to other developing countries as well. First, microfinance in Maseru has had a positive change on the lives of its participants as articulated by the interviewees in this study. Second, it has promoted entrepreneurship and enabled its participants to open small and medium enterprises. The results of which has been a shift in consumption patterns of participants and poverty reduction. Despite the positive impacts, microfinance in Maseru has had challenges. These challenges include unlawful practices undertaken by the informal microfinance institutions such as seizure of the assets from those who default on their loans. The lending risks faced by formal institutions as well as regulation challenges by the CBL. The policy implication of this study is that the CBL and the Ministry of Finance need to require informal groups to register for licences to eliminate the level of corruption and unlawful practices experienced in the informal microfinance industry.

This thesis, entitled “An analysis of bank risk management and its relevance for the non-bank corporate sector”, investigates the extent to which financial risk management by the banking sector can be applied to the non-bank corporate sector. As banks’ risk management techniques are more sophisticated than those of the non-bank corporate sector we have endeavoured to ascertain the applicability of these established risk management methods to the non-bank corporate sector. The main objectives of this study were to analyse the banking sectors’ risks and management thereof, and compare them to the risks faced by the nonbank corporate sector. This analysis was then used to present a theoretical financial risk management model for the corporate sector. This analysis was conducted using qualitative research. The thesis engaged in an in-depth investigation of financial risk management through a documentary, literature and media analysis. It was elucidated that not all companies face the same financial risks and therefore each company requires its own unique financial risk management model. Furthermore, it was established that there are several risks that both banks and non-bank corporates are subjected to. However, the management of these risks is not necessarily the same for these two types of institutes. This thesis concludes by putting forward a financial risk management model which presents all the possible financial risks that non-bank corporates may face.

In Kenya, like in many developing countries, Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) have become the main focus for achieving the much-needed social and economic development and alleviating poverty. However, their development has been hampered by lack of access to appropriate financial and related services. Micro financing has been seen as a viable alternative to providing financial services to entrepreneurs in the MSE sector. The focus of this study was to explore the role of MFIs in the development of MSEs and to see if there are ways in which this role can be enhanced to better support the growth of MSEs. Such enhancement would contribute greatly towards government efforts to foster social-economic development. The results of the research indicate that generally, MFIs appear to have positively influenced the growth of MSE in Kenya and have potential to further influence MSE growth. There were however a number areas that if paid attention to could enhance this influence. These include the need for MFIs to offer supportive services as opposed to merely credit facilities to MSEs and the need for government intervention by putting in place a suitable Act to regulate the operations of MFIs.

Rising global competition, the influence of advances in information technology and the re-engineering of business processes are some of the imperatives that force organisations to restructure their businesses. In South Africa, the situation is even more compelling, with the recent democratisation of the country that requires companies to implement certain restructuring programmes designed to empower previously disadvantaged individuals. Organisational restructuring is therefore inevitable for any organisation. These changes, however, do affect organisations and employees. Employees become insecure, confused about their jobs, and therefore less productive. To the extent that change can adversely affect both organisations and employees, it becomes critical that organisations should implement it carefully, if they are to survive. To achieve this, requires managers to fully understand drivers of change, the possible consequences of change on both organisation and employees, and to take appropriate actions. The main objective of this study was to identify possible approaches that organisations can pursue in implementing restructuring without adversely affecting the employees. The practical context chosen was an organisation that had recently implemented organisational restructuring. The research methodology for this study entailed the conducting of an intensive study of the relevant literature, to determine what the theory reveals in respect of restructuring strategies that can assist organisations in effectively implementing the restructuring process. Dissertations, theses, research reports and journals were consulted, in an attempt to formulate a theoretical basis for this study. The contemporary literature reveals that there are various strategies that organisations can employ to effectively restructure their organisations with minimal adverse influence on employees. The restructuring organisations should ensure that employees are genuinely involved in the process at the iv outset. The desired changes and the benefits thereof, should be clearly and consistently communicated to the employees at the beginning of the restructuring process. An empirical study was then conducted at the chosen organisation that had recently embarked on an organisational restructuring. The focal point of the empirical study was to determine how this organisation had implemented its restructuring process. The main purpose was to establish the impact that this restructuring had on the morale and motivation of the employees. The final step of this study included an assessment of the findings. This was done so that suitable conclusions could be drawn and appropriate recommendations made. The conclusions revolved around the effects of restructuring on the employees of this organisation. The focus of the recommendations was on what approaches the restructuring organisations should follow to successfully and effectively implement the restructuring process, without adversely affecting the employees.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the management of micro-finance institutions in Uganda has affected the performance indicators of these institutions, and whether or not the management of these institutions is responsible for their failure. The need to carry out this study arose as micro-finance institutions in Uganda failed to attain their planned performance indicators, to such a degree that most of them closed down. Although at their inception there was considerable entrepreneurial activity supported by a highly favourable government policy environment, their closure soon after establishment raised concern as to what caused them to fail. This study was encouraged by the observation that most of these institutions failed to realise their performance indicators as planned, but the underlying cause was not clear. Thus, the study focuses on establishing stakeholder perceptions of the management of the micro-finance institutions, and the relationship between their management (planning, implementation of planned programmes, and control) and their performance indicators, following the rationale of the functional and contingency paradigms of the concept of management. The study examines the way management dealt with these institutions‟ internal and external environments to influence their ability to realise their planned performance. The study is conducted using positivistic research methodology. This involved a collection of quantitative data from a sample of 454 respondents, including 64 managers, 177 employees, and 213 clients. Structured questionnaires were used to collect the data, and purposive and convenience sampling were applied to select the respondents. The respondents were selected from 56 randomly selected micro-finance institutions operating in Central Uganda and representing 75 percent of the country‟s operational institutions by December 2009. The data were analysed using the narrative, chi-square test, the ANOVA, factor analysis, and correlation and regression methods of analysis aided by the SPSS programme. The findings show that 79.2 percent of stakeholders (managers, employees, and clients) perceived that the management of their institutions was not conducted well in terms of planning, plan implementation, and control. Eighty-one (81) percent of both managers and employees and 83.4 percent of clients held the perception that the institutions failed xvi to achieve their performance indicators as planned. Furthermore, 81.7 percent of both managers and employees described their institutions‟ internal environment as largely defined by unsatisfactory supervision, and 66.9 percent of them revealed that their institutions‟ external environment was defined by family relations. These relations adversely affected the ownership, decision-making, employee recruitment, and deployment in the institutions. The findings also show that there were significant positive but weak relationships between management (planning, implementation, control, and dealing with the internal environment and the impact of the external environment) and the performance indicators of the institutions. The management of the institutions realised only 24.8 percent of their predicted performance indicators. Of the 13 null hypotheses that were formulated for this study, seven were rejected and the alternative hypotheses were accepted, while six were accepted. All the dimensions of the management of the micro-finance institutions in Uganda need to be developed if the performance of the institutions is to be improved and sustained to desired levels. It is suggested that large performance improvements will be realised by ameliorating all the dimensions of the institutions' management, while placing more emphasis on improving the following dimensions: the organisation of the institutions; the managing of their internal environment and the impact of their external environment; the conduct of their internal concurrent control; and the planning of their performance indicators and marketing, involving all the stakeholders, in particular the managers, employees, clients, Government, and the Uganda Micro-finance Forum, where necessary. Further research is recommended into other factors affecting the performance indicators of the institutions, since none of the management functions had explained them properly.

The dissertation focuses on different institutional models of financial regulation. It aims to ascertain whether any of the institutional models responds better to the current nature of financial markets.

Based on identified factors, non-traditional collateral secured loans can be viable to low income borrowers in developing markets. By being innovative and adjusting the typical banking business model, these loans can provide funding to people who otherwise would not have been able to get funding through the formalised banking system. A large number of individuals, at the bottom of the pyramid in developing countries, do not have access to property rights (property is usually used as collateral in secured loans). The purpose of this study is to determine if non-traditional collateral secured loans can be provided to individuals, SME’s and entrepreneurs at the bottom of the pyramid in developing markets. A qualitative study was conducted from interviews with Heads of Credit, Chief Risk Officers and Secured Lending Heads in financial institutions that provide secured lending offerings in developing markets. The study indicates that specific behavioural trends are associated with secured loan repayments that indicate favourable for lending institutions. Economies of scale in collateral evaluation and monitoring, is a critical factor to this lending approach to enable cost reduction. Being entrenched in the market and pro-active management in a market where very little infrastructure exist is a key factor to success. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / Unrestricted

No abstract available. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / gm2014 / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

Synergy among departments is increasingly considered vital for organizations to use their full resources to deal with threats and explore opportunities in the rapidly changing marketplace. Although valuable, developing synergy among departments is a difficult management challenge. Departments within organizations often have their own business goals, yet the coordination of these goals is a precondition for overall organizational effectiveness. The need for goal coordination makes departments interdependent (Thompson, 1967), but this interdependence may become particularly problematic when the different departmental goals are incompatible (St. John & Hall, 1991). Because of the value of cooperative goals for coordination, managers want to understand the conditions that lead people to believe their interests are basically positively associated in an organizational setting. In this study, we explore what factors increase the likelihood of having broad role identities, in which employees not only care for the goals characteristic of their own department, but also for goals of other departments. This gives rise to the question of not whether, but under what circumstances, departments develop organizational cohesion. That is the key question that must be approached by theories of intergroup relations in order to successfully understand the dynamics of interdepartmental coordination, cooperation, and conjunction. In this study, we propose that the degree to which people have concern for the organizational goals is partly rooted in interdepartmental goal interdependence. This study assumes that high departmental and interdepartmental effectiveness will be promoted by constructive cooperation between departments within organizations. In doing so, we connect the theory of cooperation and competition and social identity theory to test what interdepartmental structures will improve organizational effectiveness. Accordingly, we consider a congregation of structures by which coordination between departments can be managed. The study suggests that interdepartmental relationships are influenced or determined by contextual structures, especially task interdependence, shared rewards, and interdepartmental groups, operating first upon goal interdependence and social identity, with the effects on the interdepartmental coordination as subsequent outcomes. In practice, if each group were producing its own product or service, there might be little need for significant intergroup coordination. In most cases, however, identifiable groups in organizations are producing only a segment of the organization’s product or service. Coordination between such groups is a necessity. As professional firms that provide multiple services are well suited to exploring interdepartmental relationships (Tomasic, 1991; Eccles and Crane, 1988), this study collected the questionnaires from financial companies in mainland China. As a result, we found that three factors promoted effective interdepartmental coordination and thus high organizational performance. First, coordination will be more effective if there are compatible or cooperative goals between departments. Second, coordination will be more effective if the departments are addressed and rewarded on over-all performance measures embracing the activities of the several departments. Third, interdepartmental coordination will be more effectively achieved and over-all organizational performance will be higher to the extent that departments have salient organizational identities rather than departmental identities. This research has both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, this study provides a test of whether interdepartmental structures promote synergy in financial companies in China. This study adds to research on cooperation and competition by identifying the interdepartmental structures as important antecedents to goal interdependence. This study adds to research on social identities by identifying the interdepartmental structures such as motivational and affective antecedents to organizational identities. This study also adds to research on intergroup relationships by developing the model to enhance the coordination relations among formal departments in organizations. Practically, this study has implications for developing interdepartmental relationships in the company, especially in those financial companies in mainland China; this study also provides empirical evidence of the utility of the interdepartmental structures and suggests that cooperative goals and organizational identity mediate their effects on organizational effectiveness.

Hablar de modernidad es hablar de un entorno digital. Muchas de las actividades que realizamos a diario están ligadas directamente a un dispositivo móvil y a una aplicación, teniendo con ello un sinfín de posibilidades en la palma de nuestra mano: comunicarse con personas en todo el mundo, interactuar en las redes sociales, leer noticias, comprar en cualquier tienda a nivel mundial, conocer el tráfico, escuchar música, ver películas, mirar el clima, etc. Estos procesos de digitalización son utilizados también por el sector bancario, que no ha sido ajeno a estos cambios, a través de canales virtuales, conocidos como banca móvil, servicio proporcionado por estas entidades que permiten a sus clientes realizar diferentes transacciones financieras de forma remota sin tener que ir a una agencia u oficina, como pagar sus deudas, transferir dinero, revisar sus saldos y movimientos bancarios, etc. La banca móvil además, proporciona al cliente otros beneficios como el ahorro de tiempo y un abanico de soluciones financieras de manera inmediata, etc., ventajas que han impulsado su uso en Millennials, segmento de la población nacido entre 1980 y 1999 que para el 2020 será el 50% de la fuerza laboral del país. Esta investigación pretende mostrar cuáles son los factores que influyen para que la banca móvil sea adoptada por este segmento en Lima Urbana, para ello se utilizó el modelo de UTAUT2, considerando los factores intervinientes como el nivel socioeconómico y el banco al que son clientes las personas que fueron encuestadas. / To talk about modernity, it is to talk about a digital environment. Several of our daily tasks are directly linked to a mobile device and to an app, thus having endless possibilities to the touch of a finger: communicate with people around the world, interact in social networks, read the news, buy anything worldwide, live update of the traffic, listen to music, watch movies, the weather, etc. These digitization processes are also used by the banking sector, which has not been oblivious to these changes, through virtual channels, known as mobile banking, service provided by these entities that allow clients to carry out different financial transactions remotely without having to go to an agency or office, such as paying off your debts, transferring money, checking your balances and bank movements, etc. Also, Mobile banking provides clients with other benefits such as saving time and a range of financial solutions immediately, etc., advantages that have boosted its use in Millennials, a segment of the population born between 1980 and 1999 that by 2020 It will be 50% of the country's workforce. This research aims to show what are the factors that influence mobile banking that had to be adopted by this segment in Urban Lima, for this the UTAUT2 model was used, considering the intervening factors such as socioeconomic status and the bank to which people are clients They were surveyed. / Tesis