Evaluation of determinants on the financial performance of retirement benefit schemes in Kenya

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment for the requirements for the Degree of Master of Commerce (MCOM) at Strathmore UniversityThe main objective of this study was to evaluate determinants on the financial performance of retirement benefit schemes in Kenya. The specific objectives were: to establish the effect of determinants on the financial performance of retirement benefit schemes in Kenya and to investigate the perception of stakeholders regarding determinants on the financial performance of retirement benefit schemes in Kenya. This study used quantitative design to determine the financial performance relationship with determinants of performance. The population for this study were the 1262 retirement benefit schemes registered with the Retirement Benefit Authority, RBA by close of 2013. Simple random sampling was used and Fishers formula was used to come up with sample size of 48 private pension funds. The study used primary and secondary data. The secondary data is quantitative in nature and was collected from the annual financial statements of the pension funds. Primary data was both qualitative and quantitative in nature and was collected using questionnaires. The study findings revealed that age of contributors, leverage of fund, contributions received, fixed income investment, equity investment, offshore investment, fund liquidity does not have an influence on the financial performance of retirement schemes. The study recommended that future studies focus on corporate governance practices as determinants of the financial performance of retirement benefit schemes in Kenya