Is Mobile Finance for Youth a Dream Come True? An Infographic Explains Why It's Not Yet

It is getting harder and harder to discuss youth financial inclusion without heralding mobile technology. The mobile phone seems to have stolen the show; having assumed the leading role as a catalyst for development across the Third World. It is an instrument whose potential to change the lives of entire segments of growing populations (particularly the youth segment, which is expanding rapidly across developing countries as populations balloon) is inexorable. The mobile phone has proven capable in ushering impoverished city slum and remote village dwellers alike, into the financial mainstream. However, can the benefits of mobile technology be fully realized among youth in necessitous communities, even as restrictive polices remain in place? What will it take for the mobile phone to fulfill its promise to financially under-served young people?

Jamie Zimmerman, Director of the Global Assets Project at the New America Foundation, and also a member of the YouthSave consortium has addressed this dynamic in Hope or Hype? Five Obstacles to Mobile Money Innovations for Youth Financial Services as well as in a policy brief entitled, Beyond the Buzz: The Allure and Challenge of Using Mobile Phones to Increase Youth Financial Inclusion.

Below is an infographic created by New America’s Cyrus Nemati and published in The Weekly Wonk that summarizes some of these issues.