Humanities and Social Sciences

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    A study of factors that determine micro and small enterprises (MSEs) adoption of mobile money for business transactions: a case of MSEs in Lusaka central business district.
    (The University of Zambia, 2023) Ngwira, Tasila Alice
    The Study aimed to understand the factors that influence the adoption of mobile money services for business transaction purposes by small and medium enterprises (MSEs) in Lusaka. The aim was divided into three specific objectives. These objectives were to assess the factors that determine the use of mobile money by MSEs for business transaction purposes; to examine the relationship between these factors and the use of mobile money by MSEs for business transaction purposes, and to ascertain the effect of the factors on the use of mobile money by MSEs for business transaction purposes. The study used cross-sectional primary data. The study employed a pragmatism research philosophy and mixed research approach. The data was collected using a survey questionnaire administered by the researcher to respondents sampled using purposive sampling techniques. The study had a sample size of 102 respondents. The empirical results showed that most businesses who use Airtel money started using it less than a year ago, consider the cost to be fair, save on the platform, are affected by insufficient space borrow on the platform and are also affected by the unavailability of agents. The regression results showed that savings and insufficient float have a statistically significant impact on the adoption of mobile money. Saving using mobile money increases the likelihood of using it to conduct business transactions and issues of insufficient float among agents constrain the probability of using it to conduct business transactions. From the findings, it was recommended that mobile money providers create a mobile money product tailored for micro and small businesses.
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    The impact of board composition on financial performance of listed corporations in Zambia.
    (The University of Zambia, 2023) Milupi, David E. M
    Corporate Governance can be defined as the directing and controlling of corporations. It became popular after the collapse of several large corporations such as Enron and WorldCom. The collapse of corporations caused depositors to lose their savings, investors to lose their investments worth billions of dollars, and employees to lose jobs. Corporate governance classifies the board into four attributes, namely, board composition, board characteristics, board structure and board process. The objective of this study was to examine whether there is a relationship between board composition (board size, board independence and board gender diversity) and financial performance of listed corporations in Zambia. This research employed a descriptive study. A sample of 5 corporations out of a population of 22 listed on the Lusaka Securities Exchange (LuSE) was selected using the proportional stratified sampling technique. The period of study was from period 2008-2020. The study extracted and analyzed secondary data of annual audited financial statements and reports from respective corporations’ websites and African financials website into excel. Stata version 14.2 software was used for statistical and regression analysis. Board composition consists of three independent variables namely, board size (logBS), board independence (BI) and board gender diversity (BGD). The study adopted the random effects and fixed effects models. Results under the fixed effects model, showed a negative and significant relationship between board size and financial performance (PPP) at 0.05, and positive and significant relationship between board independence and financial performance (CR and QR) at 0.01. On the contrary, board independence also showed a negative and significant relationship with financial performance (PPP and DTE) at 0.1 and 0.01 respectively. Board gender diversity had a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (AT) at 0.1. Firm size also had a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (IHP) at 0.01. On the other hand, firm size had a negative and significant relationship with performance (AT, PPP and DTE). Random effects model results revealed a positive and significant relationship between board independence and financial performance (RCP) at 0.05 and Board gender diversity showed a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (GM) at 0.01. Contradictory results showed board gender diversity had a negative and significant relationship with financial performance (RCP) at 0.01. Firm size recorded a positive and significant relationship with financial performance (RCP) at 0.01. Other results showed firm size to have a negative and significant relationship with corporate financial performance (GM) at 0.01. This study indicates that board composition has a significant relationship with financial performance.
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    The effectiveness of Moodle in promoting online learning in tertiary public institutions: the case of the University of Zambia.
    (The University of Zambia, 2023) Kambolokoni, Nancy
    Electronic learning has over the years transitioned from targeting only the working class and secondary school leavers who could not go to the university because of the distance and lack of places. The introduction of e-learning platforms is bridging the gap in the provision of education. The background of the research shows that e-learning was introduced to promote distance education through online learning. In addition, e-learning has the ability to reduce the cost of education. The general objective of this research is to examine the effectiveness of Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment in promoting online learning at the University of Zambia. Specifically, the research aims at examining the extent to which MOODLE has promoted education at the University of Zambia and to examine the extent to which MOODLE has reduced the cost of accessing education compared to the traditional method at the University of Zambia. This was an explanatory research and was a one-time case study. It made use of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect quantitative and qualitative data, which were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences and content analysis, respectively. The sample size was 104 comprising 60 students, 40 lecturers and four key informant, one from each of the four schools namely; school of Mines, school of Engineering, school of Veterinary Medicine and school of Agricultural Sciences. The four key informants were purposively selected while simple random sampling which combined lottery method and systematic sampling was used to select the lecturers and students. The findings shows that MOODLE is very effective in enhancing distance education in public universities such as UNZA. This is because most of the lecturers and students are able to use it. This is achieved through measurers put in place by the university management such as the creation of an online platform which allows lecturers to perform their work and training of lecturers on the use of MOODLE. Although management created online courses to enhance distance education, not all lecturers are able to deliver all courses online and not all students’ accesses lectures on the online platform due to various challenges. Furthermore, MOODLE is not very effective in reducing in cost of accessing university education in public universities such as UNZA. This is because there are some areas where students still incur costs to access education despite using MOODLE. These areas are accommodation, where 26.7% of the students experienced a reduction in the cost of accommodation when using MOODLE while 73.3% of the students did not. Transportation, where 46.7% of the students experienced a reduction in the cost of transportation when using MOODLE while the majority being 53.3% did not. Accessing lectures, where 26.7% of the students experienced a reduction in the cost of accessing lectures after the introduction of MOODLE while 73.3% did not.
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    Feasibility of Zambia’s intention to exit from depending on foreign aid as a tool for development financing.
    (The University of Zambia, 2019) Makungu, Moses
    Zambia has been classified as one of the poor developing countries in the world with a monoculture economy that depends on copper as a main source of revenue. Revenues from copper have been used to finance development since the time of independence. However, the upward and downward fluctuations in copper prices during the 1970s and 80s resulted in budget deficits. This forced the Country to resort to acquiring aid as additional resources to finance the growing development problems. In 2014 and 2015, during the presentation of 2015 and 2016 National Budgets, Government of Zambia made public pronouncements that the Country would embark upon the process to exit from depending on aid to finance development. The study investigated the feasibility of Zambia’s intention to exit from depending on foreign aid for development financing. The study was guided by three (3) specific objectives. The overall objective was to find out whether it is feasible for Zambia to exit from depending on foreign aid as a tool for financing national development. The first specific objective was to examine the effect of foreign aid acquisition on the financing of national development programmes in Zambia. The second specific objective was to analyse outcomes of the measures on Zambia’s aid exit intent and the third specific objective was to establish the social, economic and political implications of Zambia’s intention to exit from depending on foreign aid as a tool to finance development. The study used exploratory research design which was able to capture largely qualitative and some quantitative data. The study sampled a total of thirteen (13) respondents of these respondents, one (1) came from Ministry of foreign affairs, one (1) from Ministry of Finance, two (02) from Ministry of National Development Planning and one (1) from Development Economic Association of Zambia, one (1) from Institute for Policy Analysis and Research, one (1) from Action Aid-Zambia, one (1) from Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection, one (1) from UKAID - Zambia, one (1) from Civil Society for Poverty Reduction, one (1) from Water Aid, and two (02) Academicians from University of Zambia. Data for this research was collected using in-depth interview guides and analysed using Qualitative Content Analysis method. In addition, secondary data was collected through a literature review. The main finding of this study was that it is not feasible for Zambia to exit from depending on aid as a major tool for development financing. It is only feasible for Zambia to exit from aid upon meeting the three specific pre conditions namely; Expansion and strengthening of domestic financial resource mobilization mechanisms, Prudent use of mobilized financial resources and strong and sustained ppolitical will to overcome Aid ‘Dependency Syndrome.’ The study also revealed the following three specific findings. First, aid resources have been used to finance development especially the following social sectors education health, water and sanitation and social protection. Second, although Government intended to exit from aid, Zambia does not have a comprehensive aid exit strategy in place to guide its aid exit intention. Third, there are more negative than positive social, economic and political consequences if Zambia decided to exit from aid a tool to finance development. Therefore, this study recommends that the Government of Zambia should reconsider its intention made in 2015 and 2016 National Budgets.
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    Health literacy and health behaviour in the context of one health approach in Morogoro, Tanzania: perceptions, attitudes, connections, and realities.
    (The University of Zambia, 2020) Muhanga, Mikidadi Idd
    Quality population is a parameter for economic development. Inter alia, health determines the quality of a population. Evidently, attaining optimal health calls for collaboration between humans, animals, and environmental health professionals plus understanding the consequences of humans, animals and environment interactions on health. Attaining good health faces numerous challenges, health literacy inclusive. Realizing this, the government of Tanzania has put numerous efforts to improve health services and educate people to become health literate. Despite the efforts, health impairing behaviours (HIBs) some resulting in zoonotic diseases and varying preferences among Tanzanians in terms of health seeking sources have been reported. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Morogoro urban and Mvomero districts in Tanzania to assess health literacy (HL), its influence on health behaviour (HB) and healthcare-seeking behaviour (HCSB), attitudes of people on HIBs and its influence on health behaviours (HBs). Focusing on One Health Approach (OHA), this study specifically: - (i) assessed HL, (ii) analyzed HBs and HCSBs, (iii) assessed attitudes of the people on HIBs, (iv) assessed determinants of HL, HB, and HCSB, (iv) identified and assessed collaborative efforts and strategies towards attaining optimal health, (v) determined linkages between HL, HB and HCSB, and, (vi) assessed stakeholders initiatives in building public health capacity, developing HL and empowering people to manage their health. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from 1440 respondents obtained through multistage sampling procedure, 80 FGDs participants and 16 key informant interviewees. Health Literacy assessment tool and a Likert scale were used to assess HL and attitudes towards HB, while an index of score gauged HBs. IBM-SPSS v.20 analysed quantitative data while qualitative data were organised into themes on specific objectives to back up findings. The study revealed, about one-third of the respondents (32.9%) with adequate HL, moderate HL (30.8%) and inadequate HL(36.3%); 40% had health-enhancing behaviours and 60% with health impairing behaviours, 58.8% preferred formal and 41.2% informal health care sources, 30% had unfavourable attitudes towards health impairing behaviours, attitudes significantly associated with behaviours (p<0.001). Ordinal logistic regression indicates that health-related discussions engagement (p<0.005), health behaviour (p<0.001), interaction with medical professionals (p<0.001), political influence on health (p<0.001), local authorities involvement on health (p<0.001) and marital status (p<0.004) to determine health literacy. Health behaviour determinants were one health concern (p<0.001), health literacy (p<0.001), local authorities involvement in health (p<0.001), prior knowledge (p=0.045) and political influence on health (p<0.003). Marital status (p<0.001), service characteristics (p<0.001) and the effectiveness of health services (p<0.001) determined healthcare seeking. Only 5% were aware and 3.8% identified collaborative efforts and strategies on OHA. There were significant associations (health literacy*health behaviour, p<0.001; health literacy*healthcare seeking, p<0.05; health behaviour*healthcare seeking, p<0.03). Only 30% perceived stakeholders’ initiatives on health and related aspects to be effective. An alternative hypothesis that Health literacy does not differ significantly among individuals exhibiting HEBs and those with HIBs under OHA was confirmed (F=795.206, p<0.001) and null hypothesis rejected. Much as low HL and ineffective efforts on health education were observed, positive attitudes towards HIBs also contributed to the observed HBs. This study recommends strengthening efforts to enhance health information dissemination through health education focusing on culture as the context that informs behaviours.