INFLUENCE OF ADOPTION OF FINANCIAL COMPETENCY PRACTICES BY BOARDS OF MANAGEMENT ON GOVERNANCE OF EARLY YEARS EDUCATION CENTRES IN KISUMU CENTRAL SUB- COUNTY KENYA

Financial Competency Practices in Kenya are guided by the Kenya National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) approach of 2025-2028 and involve key behaviors and skills at the early years education level. The purpose of this study was to bridge the governance gap by establishing the influence of adoption of financial competency practices by boards of management on governance of early years education centres in Kisumu Central Sub-county, Kisumu County, Kenya. The study was anchored on External Reporting Theory by Akintoye (2012). The theory demonstrates arrange of financial competency practices that management board members of different early years education (EYE) centres can adopt to attain good governance. The study adopted concurrent triangulation design study design. Both stratified and simple random sampling were used to obtain 11 public and 78 private EYE centres. The respondents constituted two teachers per EYE centre of which one being the Centre manager and another the class teacher giving a total of 178 respondents. The questionnaires were used to obtain data from the class teachers while interview schedules were used to obtain data from the Centre managers. The data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study findings revealed that most of the EYE boards of management are unable to construct, use and monitor the EYE centres’ budget over time. The study concluded that adoption of financial competency practices by boards of management significantly affect governance in early years education (EYE) centers in Kenya. The study recommended that the EYE centres management boards should develop specific, relevant training plans to address the financial competency gap between the current skills and evolving learning needs.