CASH MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY OF PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN KENYA
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Date
2025-08
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THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN AFRICA
Abstract
Universities play a critical role in sustaining human development by instilling knowledge, skills, and promotion of talents, which contribute significantly to economic development. Nevertheless, financial challenges have been one of
the major problems among the universities, making them unable to meet their financial obligations when they fall due. Private universities in Kenya have adopted cash management strategies such as tracking cash receipts and payment
and meeting the cash disbursement, cash collection, and cash holding to overcome their financial distress. Despite the employment of such strategies, private universities in Kenya are still financially unsustainable, as most of them
reported deficits in their income statements. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to establish the influence of cash management practices on financial sustainability in private universities in Kenya. The study was guided by four
objectives: to establish the influence of cash budgeting practices, cash flow forecasting, cash control measures, and surplus cash management on the financial sustainability of private universities in Kenya. The study was anchored on
economic sustainability theory (EST), the Baumol cash management model, agency theory, and modern portfolio theory. Explanatory research design was used in the study. Primary data were collected from 34 private universities
in Kenya using the census method. Data was analyzed using inferential statistics, specifically correlation and multiple regression using SPSS version 25. The result of the analysis revealed that the cash management practices examined
have a positive correlation with financial sustainability except for the cash budgeting practice, which exhibited a negative correlation. Meanwhile, the regression result indicated that the overall model is statistically significant,
meaning that the independent variables put together explained the change in financial sustainability. However, cash budgeting practices revealed a statistically significant negative effect, while cash control measures display a low and
statistically insignificant beta value. These findings underscored the imperative for private universities in Kenya to examine the implementation of cash budgeting practices in relation to financial sustainability. Furthermore,
administrators of private universities in Kenya should prioritize strengthening cash budgeting practices, cash flow forecasting, cash control measures, and surplus cash management, given their correlated relationship with financial
sustainability. By doing so, private universities in Kenya can possibly enhance their financial sustainability.
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Keywords
Cash management practices, financial sustainability, private universities, financial management, higher education finance, resource allocation, Kenya