What Works to Promote Youth Financial Literacy and Business Skills?
- 2 days ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 16 hours ago
Author: Danielle Hopkins
On March 16th, e-MFP was pleased to open applications for the Luxembourg Award for Inclusive Finance (LAIF) 2026 (formerly the European Microfinance Award), on the topic of ‘Unlocking Youth-Inclusive Finance’. This 17th edition of the Award, launched in 2005 by the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs — Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, is jointly organised by the Ministry, e-MFP, and the Inclusive Finance Network Luxembourg (InFiNe.lu), in cooperation with the European Investment Bank. The first prize is EUR100,000, with EUR10,000 – and lots of positive exposure – to the runners-up.
Next in e-MFP’s series of guest blogs on this topic, Danielle Hopkins from Inclusive Finance Consulting presents seven lessons she’s learned through experience with youth financial inclusion programmes across the world.
Youth in developing countries face many challenges related to employment and entrepreneurship including market opportunities, access to capital to promote business growth, access to affordable savings and insurance products to build resilience, business skills, ability to save and plan for their future and financial and digital financial literacy.
In this blog, I’m going to focus on business skills and financial and digital financial literacy. There is a clear pathway from financial literacy to financial behaviours and outcomes among youth that can provide a smooth transition to adulthood. Indeed, a PISA Survey conducted by OECD in 2022 found that students who have higher financial literacy are more likely to save money and compare prices before making a purchase.
Financial education helps youth to understand financial and digital financial products, know their rights and responsibilities, and practice behaviors that increase their successful usage of these products. An entrepreneurship programme helps youth to launch and grow a small business, ultimately increasing their overall use of financial and digital financial services.
Here’s what I’ve learned about what works in developing and implementing these types of programmes for youth:
Use What You Have When it Matters Most
Leverage existing infrastructure such as training or loan staff, mobile agents, training space and technology and touchpoints for youth such as extracurricular activities or civic classes at school, groups or clubs, weekly meetings with loan officers and common meeting places for youth like community centres or markets. This should be done during teachable moments such as when youth earn income from their first job, open their first savings account, start a business, take out their first loan, make their first loan payment, purchase their first home or start a family.
School-based models are effective for achieving scale and depth and take less time to implement at a national scale if they are integrated into an existing subject. UNCDF is working with the Ministry of Education in Vanuatu to integrate digital financial literacy as a strand in the existing national Enterprise Education curriculum for grades 7 to 10. This includes topics on the digital economy, hardware and software, digital financial services and digital protection.
Keep it Simple
Use simple, bite-size messages that are standardised across short sessions, minimal materials, and simple training techniques for in-person training or education. For digital training or platforms, gamification (which presents a series of smaller tasks with rewards or promotions to the next level) promotes a greater sense of accomplishment and progress toward achieving a larger goal. Heuristics and rules-of-thumb make it easy for young people to remember and translate the new knowledge into behaviours. Financial terms, language and information should also be simplified to promote better understanding among youth.
Several international Youth NGOs such as Aflatoun International, Plan International, Opportunity International, Making Cents International, Save the Children, Junior Achievement and BRAC International employ these techniques in their training programmes for youth. This includes simple rules and heuristics such as ‘spend, save, share’ buckets, ‘save a little regularly’ rule, ‘earn, save, spend’, labelling accounts for money, spend less than you earn and school-based nudges.
Leverage Technology
Use technology such as digital platforms, apps and social media to reach many young people. This can be done through partnerships with business incubators/accelerators which have existing online platforms and networks of youth entrepreneurs and mentors, or through partnerships with Fintechs. All share common features such as practical application, social/peer engagement, income or financial product linkages and mobile-first design.
NGO-led models are also very effective. Strive Women, a four-year programme led by CARE and supported by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth strengthens the financial health of women-led small businesses in Pakistan (V-CARE), Peru (Maxima and EmpreSara), and Vietnam (SoBanHang), through digital apps and platforms with free courses in financial literacy and financial management, an AI assistant for business support, financial tools and video tutorials. User data revealed that women often complete training early in the morning or late at night due to their busy schedules, indicating the value of flexible channels. INJAZ Al-Arab, a regional NGO in the MENA region part of the Junior Achievement network, offers online entrepreneurship training modules and financial literacy and work readiness courses for youth.
One of the more successful recent models integrates embedded finance with education. Fintech Zazu in Zambia offers a prepaid debit card linked to a digital wallet and gamified financial education lessons on saving, budgeting and financial planning for students, early earners and informal workers. Branch International targets youth and gig workers in Kenya, Nigeria and India, and provides digital loans along with credit score progression and nudges to repay on time to increase loan size. BIMA provides microinsurance bundled with mobile services for youth segments across Africa and Asia combined with SMS/voice messages that explain insurance benefits and remind youth about claim processes.
Include Their Support System and Influencers
Key influencers for youth are found in the home (parents, spouse, in-laws, other family members, caregivers), school (teachers, other students or peers), community (shopkeepers, community leaders, church leaders) and work (employers, employees, other youth entrepreneurs, mentors). The type of influencer shifts as youth go through different life-stages. When they are younger (10-14), parents serve as a central form of influence through modelling financial behaviour such as paying their bills on time, parent-child financial discussion and experiential life learning of finances. The 2022 PISA study found that students who discuss their saving or purchasing decisions with their parents are much more financially literate.
As they age (15+), youth influencers shift to include peers, employers, spouses, and in-laws.
As they age (15+), youth influencers shift to include peers, employers, spouses, and in-laws. The peer educator model promotes motivation, trust and participation among youth, particularly if they are a little older and with more experience and can be scalable and cost effective. CGAP’s recent research revealed that many young women who had accessed financial services by age 24 had received financial mentoring from their family and social networks. Mentoring should be consistent, leverage existing networks, use local champions, consider gender and include a monitoring component. Today adolescents (15-18) and young adults (19-25) are turning to ‘Finfluencers’ on social media as financial advisors for guidance on investing decisions, spending, income generation and risk-taking which raises some concerns regarding the credibility of these sources.
Take a Multi-Channel Approach
Use various channels that raise awareness, provide direct training, present opportunities for youth to practise what they’ve learned and reinforce the learning. High-touch, in-person channels are effective in terms of depth and building networks but are more expensive while low-touch, digital channels can achieve scale and can be less expensive but lack the depth in terms of learning. Using a mix of both low touch and high touch channels can achieve both depth and breadth. Junior Achievement follows this approach by raising awareness through school outreach and business competitions, providing direct training on entrepreneurship through schools, providing opportunities for students to create and run real businesses and then reinforcing the learning through mentorship from local business leaders.
While expensive, high-touch, in-person channels are effective in terms of depth and building networks, less expensive low-touch, digital channels can achieve scale but lack depth in terms of learning.
Know Your Audience
Adapt the content and delivery channels to the local context and needs of the target segment. A segmentation strategy based on life stage, gender, socio-economic status, geographic location, type of employment or business stage is key for programme development but can also be adopted for product and partnership development. Personas are a useful tool for any type of segmentation strategy.
For early adolescents (10 to 14) basic financial literacy concepts such as the value of money, earning, saving and spending in the form of short, targeted sessions that include spending prioritisation games, role plays and other interactive activities may be more appropriate. For older adolescents (15-18) and young adults (19-25) with growing experience and dependence on money more complex topics may be more appropriate such as financial planning, budgeting, use of financial and digital financial services, consumer protection and soft skills such as planning, negotiation, problem-solving and decision-making through small group discussion, case studies and simulations.
Youth entrepreneurs in the launch phase may need training on developing a basic business plan and basic financial literacy while those in the operations phase may need business management, financial management, technology management, in addition to interpersonal or personal initiative skills. Youth entrepreneurs in the growth phase may need capacity building for more advanced business management skills such as risk management and investments.
Partnerships are Key
Business Development Services (BDS) providers and Youth-Serving Organisations (YSOs) can partner with financial institutions to scale up these programmes. They can also partner with industry associations to develop employer-funded apprenticeship programmes. It is important that the mission and incentives are aligned along with the socioeconomic characteristics of the target group and geographic coverage. For example, Ecobank Ghana initially partnered with OZE, a FinTech in Ghana and UNCDF to develop a mobile business app (OZE) for MSMEs to track sales, expenses and customer information. It has now become a fully embedded finance platform providing MSMEs with access to loans across a range of providers, bookkeeping dashboards, downloadable financial reports and an e-commerce storefront. OZE has since expanded to Nigeria, Rwanda, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. These lessons can be adopted by policymakers, donors, financial institutions, telcos and practitioners alike. The 2026 Luxembourg Award for Inclusive Finance offers a chance for stakeholders serving the youth population to showcase some of these key global lessons.
About the Author:
Danielle Hopkins is the Founder of Inclusive Finance Consulting (IF Consulting). She is a financial inclusion and financial health leader with 20+ years of experience advising governments, regulators, and international organisations on policy, programme and product design, implementation to advance inclusive, resilient financial systems. She has designed and implemented best practices and evidence-based recommendations for developing more youth-inclusive programmes and policies with Aflatoun International, Alliance for Financial Inclusion, Center for Financial Inclusion, ChildFund International, CGAP, FHI 360, IDB, IREX, Making Cents International, Microfinance Opportunities, Save the Children, SEEP, UNCDF and Women’s World Banking.
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