Featured Resource: Listening to Youth: Market Research to Design Financial and Non-financial Services for Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author

UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

Executive Summary

YouthStart is a new UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) inclusive finance programme that aims to reach 200,000 youth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by 2014 with demand-driven financial and non-financial services, particularly savings and financial education initiatives.

Eighteen Financial Services Providers (FSPs) from nine different countries were invited to participate in Phase I of YouthStart, which involved conducting market research to determine the design of youth-centered financial and non-financial services in the following areas:

• Situation of youth including their political and socio-economic context
• Regulatory framework that governs the provision of financial services for young people
• Supply and demand of financial and non-financial services to young people
• The financial needs and preferences of young people aged 12 to 24

This report pulls together key findings and recommendations from the market research conducted by the 18 FSPs across 9 countries that participated in Phase I of YouthStart. It is divided into three parts.

1. Recommendations on the type of data and collection methods for FSPs seeking to develop youth financial non-financial services
2. Key findings of market research conducted by 18 FSPs
3. Summaries of the findings of four FSPs that followed best practices in their research

The recommendations in Part I are based on a literature review of youth-focused market research findings from other programs; lessons learned and best practices from the market research conducted during Phase I of YouthStart; and an analysis of what is missing from all of these resources. Recommended best practices for conducting market research with youth for the design of financial and non-financial services include the following:

1. Consider demographic data on the situation of youth in a country, national youth policies, and the regulatory environment governing the provision of financial services for young people.
2. Analyse the supply and demand of financial and non-financial services for youth according to various sources of information including potential and current young clients, staff of the FSP, staff of Youth Serving Organizations (YSOs), parents of young people, teachers and other caregivers.
3. Examine different segments of the youth market such as age, sex, geographic location, education, occupation and marital status.
4. Base recommendations for prototypes of financial and non-financial services on market segmentation and research findings.
5. Service delivery models for non-financial services must account for FSP and YSO capacity and potential for scale.

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