Youth Savings Accounts: A Financial Service Perspective

Authors

Abstract

Over a third of the world‟s population is between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five and lives in developing countries. Nearly one in five of these youth live on less than US$ 1 a day and a large portion have few economic opportunities. In response to this reality, palliative approaches that support vulnerable youth with charity and reactive social services are giving way to approaches that focus more proactively on realizing youth‟s economic potential. In this context, savings accounts are seen as one in a promising package of services that, together, can help youth cushion themselves against economic shocks, build assets and accumulate wealth that can be used to invest in a better future. In this paper, we look at youth savings services from a financial service rather than a youth service perspective.

Keywords

Download