25 research outputs found
Daudi Matengo Mijak
No full textabstract: Daudi Matengo Mijak was four years old the night the Arabs came into his village and started killing people.
“Lost Boys Found” is an ongoing, interdisciplinary project that is collecting, recording and archiving the oral histories of the Lost Boys/Girls of Sudan. The collection is a work-in-progress, seeking to record the oral history of as many Lost Boys/Girls as are willing, and will be used in a future book.Age: 21Region: Upper NileThis picture and bio was donated to the Lost Boys Found project from The Arizona Lost Boys Cente
Chief executive officer characteristics and microfinance institutions performance : a global survey
No full textThis study examines the relationship between formal business education, business experience
as CEO characteristics and MFIs performance. It uses a global dataset of 403 rated MFIs
located in 74 countries for the period of 2001 to 2009. This study uses random effects panel
data estimations to analyses the effect of CEO with formal business education and business
experience on return on assets, portfolio at risk of 30 days, which measures financial
performance, and average loan size, percentage of women clients and number of credit
clients, which capture, outreach performance. The results show that MFIs with CEO with
business experience have better return on assets, few loan defaults, smaller loan size, higher
percentage of women clients and associated with credit clients’ increase compared to MFIs
with CEO without business experience. While MFIs with CEO with formal business
education have a higher percentage of women clients, credit clients’ growth and smaller loan
size compared to MFIs with CEO without formal business education, the study find no
difference in performance on return on assets and portfolio at risk for 30 days. These findings
suggest that, in the future, the microfinance industry can benefit from non-microfinance
industry CEO with business experience.
Effect of Hepatitis C Infection on HIV-Induced Apoptosis
No full textabstract: Background
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection was reported to negatively affect HIV disease and HIV infection has a deleterious effect on HCV-related liver disease. However, despite common occurrence of HCV/HIV coinfection little is known about the mechanisms of interactions between the two viruses.
Methods
We studied CD4+ and CD8+ T cell and CD19+ B cell apoptosis in 104 HIV-positive patients (56 were also HCV-positive) and in 22 HCV/HIV-coinfected patients treated for chronic hepatitis C with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. We also analyzed HCV/HIV coinfection in a Daudi B-cell line expressing CD4 and susceptible to both HCV and HIV infection. Apoptosis was measured by AnnexinV staining.
Results
HCV/HIV coinfected patients had lower CD4+ and CD8+ T cell apoptosis and higher CD19+ B cell apoptosis than those with HIV monoinfection. Furthermore, anti-HCV treatment of HCV/HIV coinfected patients was followed by an increase of CD4+ and CD8+ T cell apoptosis and a decrease of CD19+ B cell apoptosis. In the Daudi CD4+ cell line, presence of HCV infection facilitated HIV replication, however, decreased the rate of HIV-related cell death.
Conclusion
In HCV/HIV coinfected patients T-cells were found to be destroyed at a slower rate than in HIV monoinfected patients. These results suggest that HCV is a molecular-level determinant in HIV disease.The article is published at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.007592
Financial Literacy Competencies on Retirement Planning Among Public Sector Employees at Mzinga Corporation, Tanzania
No full textThis study explores the impact of financial literacy competencies on personal retirement planning among public sector employees at Mzinga Corporation, Tanzania. It examines the relationships between financial knowledge, computational capability, financial education, and risk attitudes in shaping retirement preparedness. The research employs a positivist philosophy and a quantitative approach, utilising a causal-effect research design. A total of 65 employees participated in the study, with data collected via structured questionnaires. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis, were used to analyse the data. The findings indicate strong, positive, and significant relationships between all independent variables and personal retirement planning. Specifically, financial knowledge, computational skills, and financial education significantly enhance employees’ ability to plan for retirement, while risk attitude showed a positive but statistically insignificant impact. The regression model demonstrated that 92% of the variance in retirement planning is explained by these competencies. The study highlights the critical role of computational skills, particularly in projecting savings and assessing financial goals. The findings suggest that workplace-based financial literacy programs are essential for improving retirement preparedness, particularly in the absence of robust pension systems. The study concludes by offering policy recommendations to enhance financial literacy through targeted education and training, aimed at equipping public sector employees with the tools to secure their financial future
The origin of CEOs and its influence on microfinance performance and risk-taking
No full textThis study examines the relationships between the origin of chief executive officers (CEOs), and the performance and risk-taking levels of their companies. It is based on a sample of 353 microfinance institutions (MFIs) from 76 countries, with data covering the period 1996-2011. We use return on assets and operational costs as performance metrics, and the standard deviation of return on assets and operational costs as measures of risk. The results suggest that MFIs with an internally-recruited CEO achieve a significantly higher performance than MFIs with an externally-recruited CEO. More specifically, MFIs with an ‘insider CEO’ have a positive association with return on assets, but a negative association with operational costs. Moreover, internally-recruited CEOs appear to be associated with a lower level of risk. We believe that these results are important and have clear policy implications, in particular for an industry with such a thin labour market for CEOs and lack of managerial capacity. Our findings are consistent with the view that insider CEOs have firm-specific skills, experience and network resources that result in an enhanced MFIs performance and low-risk.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
The Origin of Chief Executive Officers and Performance in Hybrid Businesses: The Case of Microfinance
No full textThe influence of CEO power on agency costs in non-profit organisations: evidence from the global microfinance industry
No full textThis paper examines agency costs incurred by microfinance organisations. We argue that differences in agency costs not only stem from differences in ownership form but are also influenced by the amount of power wielded by the chief executive officer (CEO). We proxy for agency costs using operating expenses, asset utilisation, liquidity and tangible asset intensity. Using a sample of 374 microfinance organisations located in 76 countries, we find evidence that agency costs are higher in microfinance organisations set up as non-profits, but only if the CEO is powerful. Our empirical evidence illustrates the importance of installing proper governance mechanisms to minimise agency costs, in particular in the non-profit sector.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
The Origin of Chief Executive Officers and Performance in Hybrid Businesses: The Case of Microfinance
No full textThis study examines the relationship between the origin of chief executive officers (CEOs) and performance in hybrid businesses using a sample of 353 microfinance institutions (MFIs) from 76 countries during 1996–2011. The statistical results suggest that MFIs whose CEOs have been recruited internally perform better compared to institutions with externally hired CEOs. The findings are consistent with the view that insider CEOs have firm-specific skills, experience, and network resources that result in enhanced performance in hybrid businesses. Therefore, boards of MFIs searching for a new CEO should look for suitable internal candidates
Interaction Effect Between Loan Officers’ Characteristics and Loan Default Rate on Crowdfunding Approval
No full textMicroFinance Institution (MFI) officers screen loans for a prosocial crowdfunding campaign in developing economies. However, loan officers’ screening decision is influenced by loan officers’ default rate, hence the loan officers are likely to focus on the better borrowers. However, crowdfunding emerged to provide finance to entrepreneurs who are less likely to meet the loan screening requirements. Thus, this study examined the interaction effect between loan officers’ characteristics and loan defaults on crowdfunding approval. We usedordered logistic regression to primary data collected from loan officers in microfinance institutions that are registered by the largest prosocial crowdfunding platform Kiva asfield partners. The study found a significant interaction effect of loan officers’ default rate and gender, experience and crowdfunding awareness. Thus, the results implied that, the demographic characteristics of the loan officers are interacted by the loan officers’ default rate when deciding to approve a loan for a crowdfunding campaign. Therefore, the findings recommended imparting loan officers with techniques that will help them keep a low default rate and those loan officers with a low default rate should work on crowdfunding approva
