Social Work Commons^™

"Taking The Bank To The Youth:" Impacts On Saving And Asset Building From The Ghana Youthsave Experiment, Yungsoo Lee, Lissa Johnson, Michael Sherraden, David Ansong, Isaac Osei-Akoto, Gina Chowa

Center for Social Development Research

This working paper explores the experimental impact of in-school banking and financial marketing outreach on the savings performance of youth in schools across eight geographic regions in Ghana (i.e., “taking the bank to the youth”). The researchers found significant and sizable effects of the Ghana YouthSave experiment on savings performance. Youth in treatment schools performed better in terms of account opening, depositing, and savings than those in control schools. Between the two treatment conditions, in-school banking was more effective than marketing outreach in promoting account uptake and savings but the differences were marginally significant. Overall, the findings of the Ghana …