Financial Innovation and Emerging Issues

Finance has of late experienced a great deal of innovations that have drastically changed the way the function is managed. This is mainly due to the innovations experienced in ICT as well as the trend of globalization linking previously distant parts of the world together. These changes and innovations present a number of opportunities and challenges both at national and firm level. They have led to creation of new products as well as new and more efficient approaches of managing the finance function both at macro and micro level. New risks and vulnerabilities have also emerged as a result of the ICT innovations, the new products as well as the trend of the globalization world. In addition to ICT innovation and globalization, the finance manager is faced with a more informed, demanding and militant stakeholder. Matters of the environment and climate change are also factors putting pressure on the scarce financial resources. This therefore calls for an upgrade of the systems and approaches employed to carry out the finance function. How we invest, finance and control cash-flows for operations and projects in the new and emerging dispensation need re-looking in the light the ongoing innovations. It requires capacity building to empower the finance manager and expose him/her to the new and changing financial landscape. This is the focus of this programme.