This project will address the intersection of two issues affecting the people of Uganda: the fact that fifty percent of Ugandans are below 18 years of age and that the country’s current savings rate is exceptionally low, even by Sub-Saharan African standards.  The strategy of this project will be to target youth with financial literacy training and a specialized group savings product with the hopes of producing “life-time savers.”  If this project shows that basic financial literacy training can effectively modify individuals’ financial awareness, knowledge and behavior, it may inspire the creation and development of larger scale youth financial literacy interventions and specialized youth savings accounts.

FINCA will develop a special youth group savings account to be offered to youth groups in the relevant treatment groups.  This account will require those members of a club who are 18 or over to act as signatories, while the names of all members of the club will be on the account.  The clubs randomly selected to participate will be informed of this savings account (and encouraged to use it) by trained FINCA mobilizers. Clubs randomly selected to receive the financial literacy training will be led through a specially modified curriculum.  This curriculum will be based on a general youth financial education curriculum developed by the Global Financial Education program (a partnership between Freedom From Hunger and Microfinance Opportunities.)  Freedom From Hunger (FFH) will be sending a representative to Uganda to help with the adaptation of the curriculum to the Ugandan context and the specific purposes of the study.

The evaluation will measure the effects of the savings account and financial literacy on the financial awareness, attitudes, knowledge, and bevaviors of Ugandan youth.