Abstract:
The study examined factors determining the financial inclusion of youths in West
Shewa zone from demand side perspectives. In order to achieve this objective, four
hypotheses were developed and consequently tested by using binary logistic
regression. The study used explanatory research design with survey strategy for
primary data from sample size of 384 youths identified from six woredas of this zone.
The data collected was analysed using SPSS version 24 and the descriptive data
analysis revealed that youth financial inclusion in the study area remains low as only
30.3 % of youths were using financial institutions for account access, saving,
borrowing and digital financial services. The inferential analysis of the study by
binary logistic regression model revealed that demand side sociocultural or
demographic factors of youths, youth financial literacy, documentation requirements
and yearly income of youths were identified as major barriers of youth’s financial
inclusion in West Shewa zone of Ethiopia. Accordingly, this study recommended that
developing viable youth financial inclusion strategy, enhancing overall literacy levels
of youth and addressing financial knowledge gaps of youth in a study area in
particular and in a country in general can enormously contribute towards building
financially included youths in the country
