The Future of Digital Lending in Ethiopia The traction that met Michu and Telebirr early on highlights the massive demand for uncollateralized digital credit in Ethiopia. New entrants such as Kacha Digital Financial services have also announced they’re eying the micro-credit market. The impending entrance of Safaricom’s M-PESA is undoubtedly going to have an impact, but the telecom operator must wait until the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) sets rules before it can enter the fray. Among the most significant recent developments in the digital lending sphere is credit cards. Awash Bank has announced it will start issuing credit cards to its clients in both secured and unsecured loan forms. Clients will be able to access as much as a few hundred thousand Birr in credit from the bank, with limits depending on the loan type. It is a significant milestone for the Ethiopian financial sector, and the development is likely to be followed up by even more big changes. Central bank regulators are working on a digital lending framework that will likely see micro-credit providers gain a step up in the financial sector. As it stands, mobile money providers are the only non-traditional financial institutions allowed to engage in micro-credit service but are still required to partner with banks or MFIs to access loanable funds. The central bank, however, has recently expressed intentions to allow fintechs to loan out funds sourced from entities other than banks or MFIs. Common practice in other countries indicates that these other sources are usually private equity firms, individuals or development institutions. This model is practiced in various countries across the globe. For instance, In Kenya, Digital Credit Providers (DCPs) were not regulated by the central bank until recently and sourced funds from various sources without having to disclose them to the central bank. Nonetheless, close to 300 DCPs have applied for licenses from the Kenyan central bank this year after regulators put out a call following a decision that compels lenders to disclose their source of funding. Ten of them have already been licensed. Development Financial Institutions, commercial banks, private equity firms and high-net-worth individuals are some of the popular sources of funding that Kenya-based DCPs use for lending. The implementation of various models of lending come with their own advantages and disadvantages. Here are the possible opportunities and threat that the Ethiopian market will experience as a result of the upcoming changes: Opportunities Encourages the development of new lending models such as peer-to-peer (P2P lending). Countries with advanced digital lending models have progressed to be able to offer a slew of innovative lending products. Diversifying the source of funds would allow creditors to experiment with innovative use cases based on their own risk appetite as they’ll be able to retain the risk on their own. Provides a more attractive business cases.

2. Financial management is an integrated decision
making process, concerned with acquiring,
managing and financing assets to accomplish
overall goals within a business entity.
Speaking differently, it is concerned with making
decisions relating to investments in long term
assets, working capital, financing of assets and so
on.

3. What is Financial Management?
 Financial management capacity is a cornerstone of
organizational excellence.
 Financial management pervades the whole organization as
management decisions almost always have financial
implications.

4. Meaning of Financial Management
 Financial management entails planning for the future of a
person or a business enterprise to ensure a positive cash
flow, including the administration and maintenance of
financial assets.
 The primary concern of financial management is the
assessment rather than the techniques of financial
quantification.
 Some experts refer to financial management as the science
of money management.

5. Components of Financial
Management
The five basic components of the Financial Management
Framework are:
 Planning and Analysis
 Asset and Liability Management
 Reporting
 Transaction Processing
 Control

7. ImportanceofFinancialManagement
Financial management is concerned with procurement and
utilization of funds in a proper way. It is important because
of the following advantages:
1. Helps in obtaining sufficient funds at a minimum cost.
2. Ensures effective utilization of funds.
3. Tries to generate sufficient profits to finance expansion and
modernization of the enterprise and secure stable growth.
4. Ensures safety of funds through creation of reserves,
re-investment of profits, etc.

8. Finance function
The finance function relates to three major decisions which
the finance manager has to take:
 Investment decisions
 Finance decisions
 Dividend decisions

9. Investment decision:
This decision relates to the careful selection of assets
in which funds will be invested by the firm. It
Involves buying, holding, reducing, replacing, selling
& managing assets.
Common questions involving Investments include:
 In what lines of business should the firm engage?
 Should the firm acquire other companies?
 What sort of property, plant, equipment should the
firm hold?
 Should the firm modernise or sell an old production
facility?

10. Financing decisions involve the acquisition of funds needed to
support long-term investments.
 While taking this decision, financial management weighs the
advantages and disadvantages of the different sources of finance.
 The business can either finance from its shareholder funds which
can be subdivided into equity share capital, preference share
capital and the accumulated profits.
 Borrowings from outsiders include borrowed funds like
debentures and loans from financial institutions.

11.  This decision relates to the appropriation of profits earned.
The two major alternatives are to retain the profits earned
or to distribute these profits to shareholders.
While declaring dividend, a large number of
considerations are kept in mind such as:
 Trend of earnings
 Stability in dividends
 The trend of share market prices
 The requirement of funds for future growth
 The cash flow situation
 Restrictions under the Companies Act
 The tax impact on shareholders etc.

12. Investment
decision
Three Legged Tool Analogy: Broad Classification of Decision Activities

13. Objectives of Financial Management
The objectives or goals of financial management are-
(a) Profit maximization,
(b) Return maximization, and
(c) Wealth maximization.

14. Objectives of Financial Management
(1)Profit maximization: Maximization of profits is generally regarded
as the main objective of a business enterprise.
(2)Return Maximization: Another goal of financial management is to
safeguard the economic interest of the persons who are directly or
indirectly connected with the company, i.e., shareholders,
creditors and employees.
(3)Wealth Maximization: Maximization of profits is regarded as the
proper objective of the firm but it is not as inclusive a goal as that
of maximizing its value to its shareholders.

15. Financial Management levels
Broadly speaking, the process of financial management takes
place at two levels:
 At the individual level, financial management involves tailoring
expenses according to the financial resources of an individual. From
an organizational point of view, the process of financial
management is associated with financial planning and financial
control.
 At the corporate level, the main aim of the process of managing
finances is to achieve the various goals a company sets at a given
point of time.

16. Financial Planning
Financial planning means deciding in advance how much to spend,
on what to spend, according to the funds at your disposal.
Thus, there are two aspects of financial planning:
 How much funds are required to finance current and fixed assets
and future expansion project?
 From where will these funds come?
Financial planning takes into consideration the growth,
performance, investments and requirement of funds for the
business for a given period of time.

18. Capitalization Capital
structure
Management
of capital

19. Capitalisation
Capital is the basis of all financial decisions and
the term capitalization has been derived from it .
 Capital means the total funds invested in the business and
includes owners’ funds , long term loans and other reserves
which are represented by assets.
 Capitalization is the valuation of this capital and will include
owners funds, borrowed funds, long term loans, reserves and
any surplus earnings.

20. Three possible situations of Capitalisation
Fair capitalization
‡
Business employs
correct amount of
capital
Over
capitalization
Business employs
more capital than
warranted
Under
capitalization
Business employs
less capital than
warranted

21. Over Capitalisation
There are three main indicators of over capitalization:
i. When the amount of capital invested in the business exceeds
the real value of its assets.
ii. When the earnings are not justified by the amount of
capitalization i.e. a fair return is not realized on capital
employed.
iii. When a business has more net assets than it requires

22. Under Capitalisation
Under capitalization is the reverse of over
capitalization. A company becomes under capitalized
when :
 The future earnings are under estimated at the time of
promotion.
 Unforeseen increase in earnings

23. Functions of Financial Management
Functions of financial management can be divided into two
groups:
 Executive (or managerial)functions
 Incidental or routine functions

24. Executive functions:
These functions involve financial, investment and dividend decision
making.
Executive functions involve the following decisions:
 Financial Forecasting
 Investment decisions
 Managing corporate asset structure
 The management of income
 Management of cash
 Deciding about new sources of finance
 To contact and carry negotiations for new financing
 Analysis and appraisal of financial performance
 Advising the top management

25. Incidental functions:
They are performed by low level assistants like
accountants, account assistants etc. They include:
 Record keeping and reporting
 Preparation of various financial statements
 Cash planning and its supervision
 Credit management
 Custody and safeguarding different financial securities
etc.
 Providing top management with information on current
and prospective financial conditions of the business.

26.  Understanding financial management: a practical
guide By Harold Kent Baker, Gary E. Powell
 http://www.economywatch.com/finance/financial-
management.html
 http://managementhelp.org/finance/fp_fnce/fp_fnce.
htm
 Various other sources on the internet