Measuring the Effectiveness of Financial Literacy Programs in Ghana

Subject Areas : General Management

A.  Atakora ¹ (Kumasi Polytechnic, Kumasi, Ghana.)

Received: 2013-10-13 Accepted : 2013-10-13 Published : 2013-04-01

Keywords: Financial Literacy, Effectiveness, Financial Behavior, Ghana,

Abstract :

This paper explores the effectiveness of financial literacy programs. It further seeks to establish the relationship between financial literacy and certain demographic characteristics. This study adopted a correlational research design as the framework to examine the relationship between variables without determining cause and effect. Data were randomly collected from 235 petty traders in Kumasi central market, Ghana. The paper found that promoting and preserving public confidence in the financial sector would take much longer time than envisioned by Bank of Ghana (BoG) if the challenge posed by inadequate financial literacy is not tackled. Age and work experience were positively related to financial literacy. Also, mother’s education was positively correlated with respondents’ financial literacy. The findings also indicate that traders with high level of education display higher financial literacy level than non-educated ones. The study recommends that policy makers should also make sure that customers easily get access to the bank’s activities related to financial education as the study has indicated that the banks’ activities are not accessible.