Extending the Frontiers of Financial Inclusion to Children and Youth in Ghana

The conference came against the backdrop of ongoing efforts by the government to develop a national financial inclusion policy for the country. Thus the conference provided an opportune platform for stakeholders to lobby the government to pay attention to children and youth in the development of the policy. It also provided participants a platform to deliberate on, and provide concrete action steps to promote, financial literacy among children and youth and extend financial services to out-of-school youth, rural youth and young entrepreneurs.

These included reforming existing financial regulations to make financial services to various categories of youth feasible, especially KYC (which is a barrier for most out-of-school youth), the age at which one can open an account , and the practice of demanding fixed assets as collateral for loans. The conference also appealed to financial service providers to approach the concept of youth banking from a holistic perspective, from recruitment of youth-friendly staff to branding and design of its products.

The conference’s opening address was delivered by the Managing Director of one bank that has put this approach into practice, Mr. Asare Akuffo of HFC Bank. Mr. Akuffo opined that the current estimate that seventy percent of adult Ghanaians are unbanked could be attributed to the fact that they were not exposed to the financial system in their younger years. He noted that saving and investment are habits that are learned, so inculcating these habits in formative years would ensure that they are continued in adulthood. He thus challenged stakeholders to intensify advocacy actions to ensure the new policy covers both children and youth.

In another major address, Mr. Joseph Chognuru, Director of the Financial Sector Division of the Ministry of Finance, highlighted financial inclusion efforts the government has already targeted at young people, including an annual financial literacy week featuring activities such as financial literacy quiz competitions for senior high schools. In addition, the Ministry of Finance, in partnership with German Development Cooperation (GIZ), recently concluded a year-long pilot of a financial education curriculum integrated into the compulsory social studies subject in 25 senior high schools. The Ministry is currently reviewing the pilot with an interest in rolling it out nationally.

Mr. Chognuru assured participants that the National Financial Inclusion policy will cover children and youth, and urged stakeholders to continue to engage and support the government in pursuit of the theme of the conference: “extending the frontiers of financial inclusion to children and youth.” Accordingly, as a follow up to the meeting, the outcomes of the deliberations will be developed into a comprehensive communiqué and disseminated to major actors as an input into the National Financial Inclusion policy.