BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE AIMS AND CONTENT This module introduces students toa range of Software application used in Finance such asExcel functions. Throughout this module, students will be equipped with adequate skills to build financial formulas; investment formulas; working with bonds; building discount formulas and understanding their applicability and role through practical exercises and case studies about financial sector in Rwanda/ around the world.
You have already learnt about the preparation of financial statements i.e. Balance Sheet and Trading and Profit and Loss Account in Intermediate Accounting. After preparation of the financial statements, one may be interested in analyzing the financial statements with the help of different tools (To be applied later). In this process a meaningful relationship is established between two or more accounting figures for comparison.
The module aims at equipping students with the knowledge of analyzing financial statements of various business firms; review and assess financial information to help them understand a firm’s financial strengths and weaknesses, which will lead to appropriate financial decisions for proper financial planning.
As objectives, at the end of this module, students are expected to be able to: explain the meaning, need and purpose of financial statement analysis; identify the parties interested in analysis of financial statements; explain the various techniques and tools of analysis of financial statements.
Therefore, the module will include tools and techniques of analysis and interpreting financial information reported in the firm’s financial statements.
This module introduces students to the study field of international finance. It examines international parity conditions that are the underlying determinants of foreign exchange rates. It explores the relationship between prices and exchange rates, defined as purchasing power parity and then explains the relationship between interest and exchange rates. Then, it examines how to forecast foreign exchange rates.
It gives detailed description of how foreign exchange rates are quoted, cross rates are determined, and international arbitrage occurs.
Then this module defines the main types of foreign exchange exposure, namely, transaction, operating, and translation exposure. It analyzes why a firm should or should not hedge one or more of these exposures, and how a firm should measure and manage these exposures.
Finally, it examines how a firm can use the global capital market to minimize its cost of capital and maximize its access to capital.
This module focuses on financial issues of the government and of the public sector in general. It is designed as an overview of key elements in public budgeting, public finance, and public financial management. It introduces students in public finance and budgeting, dealing with public revenues, expenditure and borrowing policies, and with politics of the budgetary process. Various government financial activities are analyzed by applying basic principles and quantitative models of finance.
This module aims to provide you with an introductory knowledge of data analytical tools, including techniques for both descriptive and basic inferential statistics. It aims to teach you how to read and interpret quantitative information, to construct datasets from individual and aggregate level data, to summarize and present the important quantitative information in an effective and rigorous way, to look for and identify relevant trends and patterns in your data, and to conduct basic hypothesis tests. By the end of the module, you should be able to understand basic quantitative methods, to critically interpret quantitative information, and to conduct basic statistical analyses.