Factors Determining The Financial Inclusion Of Youth In West Shewa Zone: A Focus On Demand Side Investigation

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