Webinar Recording: Rural Youth Finance - A Bridge too Far?
Organization/Affiliation(s):
Making Cents International and RTI International
Resource Type:
Publication Date:
Jan 11, 2017
Rural youth tend to be the least financially included: youth financial inexperience and limited assets exacerbate the basic rural finance challenges of low population density and poor infrastructure. Nonetheless, they demand financial services to manage their resources, build assets, and invest in livelihoods or education. How should the financial sector react to this situation – try to serve rural youth directly with new products and services, focus on the “near adults” in a rural finance strategy and deepen services over time, or ignore this population until the challenges of rural finance can be overcome? 136 financial inclusion practitioners came together on January 11th to discuss these issues and determine whether rural youth financial inclusion was possible, or simply a bridge too far.
USAID began the discussion with Paul Nelson, Digital Finance Advisor, describing how the agency sees digital finance as the key strategy for financial inclusion in general, and especially for hard-to-reach rural areas. He emphasized that the potential cost savings of digital finance – reducing transaction costs by as much as 30% - could bring an array of financial services within reach of rural and especially more tech-savvy rural youth populations.
Timothy Nourse, President of Making Cents International, agreed. Drawing from a recently completed project for IFAD and their larger portfolio of financial inclusion projects, Tim confirmed that exploiting new technologies was key to rural youth inclusion. However, he pointed out the importance of other key lessons as well – that product adaptations were necessary for both rural and youth contexts, partnerships with a variety of for-profit, governmental, and not-for profit actors were necessary to penetrate rural areas, and that building capacity as you build assets were especially important for younger youth cohorts. Perhaps most critical, Tim asserted that the best strategy for rural youth financial inclusion would be through adults – as the infrastructure and products that successfully served rural adults could be adapted to target economically active rural youth first, followed by deeper penetration later.

Sarah Mattingly, RTI’s Senior Workforce and Youth Economic Opportunity Specialist, focused on the Building Capacity as you Build Assets aspect of youth financial inclusion. She described how the USAID supported K-YES project in Kenya built the skills of rural youth as a pre-requisite for access to even simple financial platforms such as Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLA). In addition, while recognizing the potential of technology to reduce costs, noted that the still weak digital infrastructure in rural communities prevented it from being exploited.
Alison Boess, the former Deputy CEO for FINCA Microfinance Bank Nigeria and now Senior New Business Development Officer, emphasized key strategies for serving rural youth. She described how FINCA had tried to target children and younger youth cohorts (up to age 24), but found it too expensive to sustain. Instead, they opted to use digital platforms to lower costs and serve rural adults and the most economically active (and oldest) youth cohorts.
Is rural youth financial inclusion still a bridge too far? In the end, panelists agreed that it depended on what youth you were serving. Financial inclusion for older and economically active youth is definitely feasible, especially when facilitated by digital platforms. VSLAs also offered a promising means for helping younger youth cohorts build assets and skills. Nonetheless, for most rural youth, formal financial services still remain out of reach.
Watch the recording:
View the slides:
Speakers:
Paul Nelson
Digital Finance Advisor, U.S. Global Development Lab, USAID

Timothy Nourse
President, Making Cents International

Sarah Mattingly
Senior Workforce and Youth Economic Opportunity Development Specialist, RTI International

Sarah Mattingly is an economic growth specialist with more than 15 years of experience in economic growth initiatives, and particularly with workforce development, microenterprise, livelihood, agriculture, local capacity building, and new business development. Before joining RTI, Ms. Mattingly was a Project Director in FHI 360’s Economic Development Livelihoods department and a Program Officer at the World Bank Group.
Alison Boess
Former Deputy CEO, FINCA Microfinance Bank (Nigeria); current Senior New Business Development Officer, FINCA International

Topic:
Financial Inclusion
Regions:
Global
Tags:
Financial Literacy/Education
Savings