An Exploration of Annual Budgets and GDP Trends of Kenya for the Period 2018-2023 (Published)
This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the annual budgets and of gross domestic product (GDP) changes in Kenya over the last six years to identify and understand the economic trends and some factors that have influenced the growth and development of the country. Kenya is considered to be an emerging country in Africa and in the countries of the East African Community, of which it is a member. The study uses a quantitative technique to assess the annual budgets of Kenya, focusing primarily on revenue and expenditure, including some important areas such as infrastructure, health care, and education. It also examines the internal and external variables that influence the evolution of GDP and, finally, it identifies the financing mechanisms. The study revealed fluctuations in annual budgets and GDP over the last six years. But in general, increasing changes indicate a growing economy. The study recommends a genuine inclusive approach to budget preparation, evaluation of tax policies to create positive attitudes of citizens towards taxes, and improved debt management to reduce the risk of indebtedness.
Keywords: Budget, Debt, Gross Domestic Product, tax, trend
Capital Structure and Firm Performance Nexus: Nigerian Consumer Goods Sector Analysis (Published)
This study investigated the effect of capital structure on firm performance using a sample of seven companies listed under the consumer goods sector of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The study adopted return on assets as proxy for performance (the response variable), while capital structure components such as debt to equity, debt to capital employed and equity to capital employed were used as the explanatory variables. Secondary data were collected from the annual published financial reports of the sampled consumer goods sector companies for the period 2009 to 2018. The study employed descriptive statistics and multiple regression technique based on the E-view 9.0 software as the methods of data analysis. The results revealed that debt to equity has insignificant positive impact on return on assets, debt to capital employed and equity to capital employed had negative but insignificant effect on return on assets. Over all, capital structure has no significant effect (at 5% level) on firm performance in the consumer goods sector. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others that the management of consumer goods sector companies should exercise caution in considering the use of debt finance (following the Pecking order theory) in their capital mix up to the optimal limits, as debt to equity ratio provided insignificant positive effect on performance; and that further studies be conducted on other sectors of the economy to provide more robust generalized inferences.
Keywords: Assets, Capital, Debt, Equity, Performance, Returns, Structure, employed