Mini MBA in Finance Training Course

Duration 10 days 19 modules · 65 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends General Managers, Finance Managers and others
Fee from USD 2,200 KSh 190,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EPMM-004

Before you join: Participants should be comfortable with percentages, basic arithmetic and reading simple profit-and-loss statements, balance sheets and cash-flow reports.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Finance leaders and managers are expected to convert commercial activity into clear financial decisions: whether to invest, acquire, borrow, price, restructure or return cash to shareholders. That requires more than reading accounts. They must identify the economic drivers behind reported results, test assumptions, estimate cash consequences, assess risk and explain recommendations to executives, boards and non-finance colleagues. Weak financial analysis can result in poorly funded projects, avoidable liquidity pressure, value-destructive acquisitions and decisions based on accounting profit rather than cash generation.

This Mini MBA in Finance provides a structured business education in financial accounting, management accounting, corporate finance, valuation, capital markets, treasury, risk, governance and strategic decision-making. Participants learn to interpret financial statements, build operating and cash-flow forecasts, calculate key performance measures, assess investment proposals using discounted cash flow, estimate weighted average cost of capital and value businesses using comparable-company and precedent-transaction methods. The programme also examines financing choices, dividend policy, mergers and acquisitions, foreign-exchange exposure, financial controls and board reporting.

Teaching combines concise faculty briefings with financial cases, spreadsheet-based calculations, decision simulations, group reviews and individual application planning. Participants progressively develop a board-ready financial decision pack based on a realistic business situation, then test and present it in the final capstone. They leave with reusable models, templates and checklists for analysing performance, funding growth, evaluating investments and communicating financial recommendations. The programme suits managers who work with budgets, investment cases, commercial plans or senior decision-makers and need stronger command of finance without undertaking a full-length MBA.

What you will be able to do

  • Interpret IFRS-based financial statements using profitability, liquidity, efficiency and solvency ratios
  • Build integrated revenue, cost, working-capital and cash-flow forecasts
  • Calculate investment returns using NPV, IRR, payback and sensitivity analysis
  • Estimate WACC using capital structure, CAPM inputs and debt pricing
  • Value a business using discounted cash flow, trading multiples and transaction multiples
  • Evaluate financing, dividend and capital-allocation decisions against shareholder-value objectives
  • Assess foreign-exchange, interest-rate, liquidity and credit risks using treasury controls
  • Present a board-ready financial decision pack supported by evidence and assumptions

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Make clearer recommendations on investment, financing and growth decisions
  • Challenge forecasts, valuation assumptions and reported performance with evidence
  • Translate operational drivers into cash, profit and return measures
  • Contribute credibly to board papers, budget reviews and capital committees
  • Build a reusable financial decision pack for a current business issue

For your organisation

  • Improves the quality and consistency of capital-investment proposals
  • Reduces decisions based solely on revenue growth or accounting profit
  • Strengthens cash forecasting and working-capital accountability
  • Creates better challenge of valuation, funding and acquisition assumptions
  • Improves communication between finance, commercial and operating teams

Course modules

19 modules over 10 days

Participants can frame management decisions around cash generation, risk and enterprise value.

  • Shareholder value, stakeholder obligations and financial decision rights
  • Economic profit compared with accounting profit and cash generation
  • Value drivers linking strategy, operations, financing and investor returns
  • Agency theory, incentives and conflicts between owners and managers
  • Finance function roles: controllership, treasury, tax and corporate development
  • Board decisions requiring financial evidence, assumptions and risk trade-offs

Participants can read core financial statements and identify the relationships between them.

  • IFRS reporting purpose, accounting policies and management judgement
  • Income statement drivers, margin bridges and earnings-quality adjustments
  • Balance-sheet assets, liabilities, equity and capital employed
  • Cash-flow statement classification under operating, investing and financing activities
  • Revenue recognition, provisions and impairment effects on reported performance
  • Links between profit, retained earnings, working capital and cash

Participants can diagnose profitability, liquidity, operating efficiency and solvency from reported data.

  • Common-size statements for trend, mix and peer comparison
  • DuPont analysis separating margin, asset turnover and financial leverage
  • Liquidity ratios: current ratio, quick ratio and operating cash coverage
  • Working-capital cycle measured through DSO, DIO and DPO
  • Solvency measures including net debt, interest cover and debt service
  • Red flags in earnings quality, receivables, inventory and provisions

Participants can use cost information to support pricing, volume and operating decisions.

  • Fixed, variable, semi-variable and step-cost classification methods
  • Contribution margin analysis for product, customer and channel decisions
  • Break-even volume, margin of safety and operating leverage
  • Activity-based costing for indirect-cost allocation and profitability analysis
  • Relevant costs, sunk costs and opportunity costs in decisions
  • Transfer pricing principles and internal performance measurement consequences

Participants can construct an integrated plan linking operational assumptions to financial statements.

  • Driver-based revenue forecasts using volume, price and mix assumptions
  • Cost budgets linked to headcount, capacity and procurement plans
  • 13-week rolling cash forecast built from receipts and payment schedules
  • Integrated profit, balance-sheet and cash-flow forecast construction
  • Scenario planning using base, downside and upside assumptions
  • Forecast variance analysis distinguishing volume, price, mix and efficiency

Participants can identify cash-release opportunities while protecting supplier and customer relationships.

  • Cash conversion cycle drivers and working-capital diagnostic measures
  • Receivables ageing, credit limits and collection escalation controls
  • Inventory segmentation using ABC analysis and safety-stock principles
  • Payables strategy balancing discounts, supplier resilience and payment terms
  • Working-capital improvement initiatives quantified through cash-release calculations
  • Cash-flow consequences of growth, seasonality and contractual milestones

Participants can evaluate capital proposals using cash-flow-based investment criteria.

  • Present value and future value calculations using discount factors
  • Incremental cash flows separated from accounting allocations and sunk costs
  • Net present value for mutually exclusive capital projects
  • Internal rate of return limitations and multiple-rate conditions
  • Payback period and discounted payback for liquidity assessment
  • Sensitivity analysis for volume, cost, timing and terminal-value assumptions

Participants can estimate a suitable discount rate and assess financing trade-offs.

  • Capital structure choices between retained earnings, debt and equity
  • CAPM inputs: risk-free rate, beta and equity market premium
  • Cost of debt calculated from yields, credit spreads and tax effects
  • Weighted average cost of capital calculated using market-value weights
  • Financial distress costs, covenant constraints and refinancing risk
  • Project-specific discount rates and divisional hurdle-rate adjustments

Participants can value an enterprise from forecast free cash flows and terminal assumptions.

  • Free cash flow to firm derived from operating forecasts
  • Forecast periods selected from business maturity and competitive conditions
  • Terminal value using perpetuity growth and exit-multiple approaches
  • Enterprise value reconciled to equity value through net debt
  • DCF sensitivity tables for WACC, growth and operating assumptions
  • Valuation narrative connecting strategic drivers to financial model outputs

Participants can use market comparables to test and communicate valuation conclusions.

  • Comparable-company selection by business model, growth and risk
  • Trading multiples: EV EBITDA, EV sales, P E and price book
  • Normalising EBITDA for exceptional items, leases and owner compensation
  • Precedent-transaction analysis using control premiums and deal circumstances
  • Valuation ranges reconciled across DCF, trading and transaction methods
  • Market prices interpreted alongside liquidity, sentiment and information gaps

Participants can assess competing uses of cash against return, risk and strategic fit.

  • Capital allocation choices: reinvestment, acquisitions, dividends and buybacks
  • Return on invested capital compared with weighted average cost
  • Dividend policy factors including cash stability, growth and investor expectations
  • Share repurchases assessed against valuation, debt capacity and alternatives
  • Portfolio review using strategic fit, return and capital intensity
  • Capital committee papers structured around options, assumptions and approvals

Participants can compare debt and equity funding options for growth and refinancing.

  • Bank loans, revolving facilities, bonds and private placements compared
  • Debt maturity profiles, amortisation schedules and refinancing exposure
  • Loan covenants, security packages and information undertakings
  • Credit ratings, default risk and borrowing-cost determinants
  • Equity issuance, dilution and rights-issue mechanics
  • Funding strategy matched to asset life, cash flow and risk

Participants can screen acquisition opportunities and identify value, price and integration risks.

  • Strategic rationale tested through market position, capabilities and economics
  • Synergy valuation separated into revenue, cost, tax and financing effects
  • Acquisition price, control premium and value-sharing considerations
  • Due diligence workstreams covering financial, commercial, legal and tax matters
  • Purchase-price adjustments, completion accounts and earn-out structures
  • Post-merger integration milestones, accountability and synergy tracking

Participants can identify major treasury exposures and specify practical control responses.

  • Treasury policy covering liquidity, counterparty, market and operational risks
  • Cash pooling, notional pooling and in-house bank structures
  • Foreign-exchange transaction exposure measured through currency cash-flow forecasts
  • Forward contracts, swaps and options matched to hedging objectives
  • Interest-rate exposure managed through fixed, floating and swap structures
  • Counterparty limits, dealing authorities and treasury control segregation

Participants can design financial controls and reporting practices that support accountable decisions.

  • Risk registers linking financial exposures, controls, owners and indicators
  • Three lines model for management, assurance and internal audit
  • Segregation of duties across approval, payment and reconciliation activities
  • Fraud risk indicators in procurement, expenses, revenue and payroll
  • Internal control testing using walkthroughs, samples and exception analysis
  • Audit committee reporting on control failures and remediation progress

Participants can explain how economic conditions and market pricing affect financial decisions.

  • Inflation, interest rates and growth effects on business forecasts
  • Central-bank policy transmission through borrowing costs and demand
  • Yield curves interpreted for financing maturity and recession expectations
  • Equity-market expectations reflected in valuation multiples and share prices
  • Credit spreads as indicators of perceived default and liquidity risk
  • Investor relations messages linking performance, guidance and capital allocation

Participants can connect strategic choices to unit economics, funding needs and long-term value.

  • Business model economics: customer acquisition, retention and lifetime value
  • Unit economics tested through contribution, capacity and cash-payback measures
  • Pricing architecture using value-based, cost-plus and competitive approaches
  • Growth strategies assessed for capital intensity and financing requirements
  • Strategic scenarios translated into value-driver trees and financial outcomes
  • Balanced scorecard measures aligned with financial and operating objectives

Participants can communicate financial analysis in concise, decision-focused executive formats.

  • Board-paper structure: decision, recommendation, evidence, risks and approvals
  • Executive dashboards using leading indicators, financial outcomes and thresholds
  • Waterfall charts explaining budget, forecast and actual performance changes
  • Assumption logs documenting sources, owners, confidence and review dates
  • Recommendation language distinguishing facts, estimates, judgements and scenarios
  • Question handling for valuation challenge, downside cases and risk appetite

Participants can build, review and present a complete financial decision pack for a strategic business proposal.

  • Problem definition framed around strategic choice, value and constraints
  • Historical performance diagnosis using statements, ratios and cash conversion
  • Integrated forecast built from operational drivers and documented assumptions
  • Investment appraisal, WACC and valuation methods applied consistently
  • Funding, treasury and risk responses specified with control actions
  • Board recommendation presented with scenarios, sensitivities and implementation milestones

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Integrated three-statement forecast template
  2. 13-week rolling cash forecast model
  3. Capital-investment appraisal worksheet
  4. Business valuation model
  5. Treasury risk-control checklist
  6. Board-ready financial decision pack

Who should attend

  • General Managers — make investment, pricing and resource-allocation decisions with financial discipline
  • Finance Managers — strengthen corporate-finance judgement beyond reporting and budgeting responsibilities
  • Business Unit Directors — connect operating plans to cash generation, returns and funding needs
  • Commercial Managers — evaluate customer, product and contract economics with greater confidence
  • Project and Programme Managers — develop credible investment cases and monitor financial benefits
  • Senior Non-Finance Leaders — interpret board papers and challenge financial recommendations effectively

Skills and tools covered

Financial statement analysisCash flow forecastingBusiness valuationCapital investment appraisalTreasury risk managementBoard financial communication

Tools and standards

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), DuPont analysis, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)

How the course runs

Training methodology

Faculty-led briefings introduce each method before participants apply it to financial statements, investment cases, treasury scenarios and valuation data. Cases reflect decisions such as capacity expansion, pricing pressure, acquisition screening, debt refinancing and foreign-currency exposure. Small-group exercises test assumptions, compare alternatives and prepare concise recommendations. Simulations show how operating choices affect earnings, cash and enterprise value. Participants develop their own application plan throughout the programme, receiving structured peer and instructor feedback before presenting the final financial decision pack.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable with percentages, basic arithmetic and reading simple profit-and-loss statements, balance sheets and cash-flow reports. At least two years of professional experience in management, commercial, operational, project or finance roles is expected, because discussions use realistic organisational decisions. Prior study of accounting, economics, valuation or corporate finance is not required. Participants do not need an MBA, a finance qualification or advanced spreadsheet programming skills. A laptop with spreadsheet software is useful for calculations and case materials, particularly for live online delivery.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should be comfortable with percentages and able to read basic financial reports. No accounting qualification, MBA or previous valuation experience is required; the programme builds methods from first principles before applying them to cases.

Bring a laptop with spreadsheet software and, where permitted, a current business issue such as an investment proposal, budget challenge or growth plan. Course cases and calculation materials are provided.

It is designed for managers, senior specialists and emerging leaders who influence commercial, operating, project or financial decisions. It is particularly useful for non-finance leaders who need to work confidently with finance teams and board-level information.

A short finance-for-non-finance course usually concentrates on reading accounts and basic budget concepts. This ten-day Mini MBA goes further into forecasting, investment appraisal, WACC, valuation, funding, treasury, transactions, governance and financial strategy.

Participants use their own decision context to shape an application plan and financial decision pack. The templates can be adapted for budget reviews, capital requests, pricing decisions, acquisition screening and cash-improvement initiatives.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The first week establishes accounting, forecasting, cash and investment methods; the second week applies them to valuation, funding, risk, strategy, board reporting and the capstone.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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