Journal of Applied Finance & Banking

Assessing Financial Literacy of Employed and Business People in AMBO, Ethiopia: Evidence for Policy Makers

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• Abstract

   

  Financial market today is flooded with sophisticated and complex financial products thereby individuals require a greater degree of financial literacy to select appropriate financial products and avail financial services.  The purpose of the study was to assess the financial literacy and awareness of financial products of employed and business people in AMBO, Ethiopia. Descriptive research was adopted for the study.  From the total population of 10,031 employed and business people in AMBO, 371 adults aged 18 to 79 were interviewed using a structured and a standardized questionnaire developed by OECD. Financial literary is the sum of the scores of three constructs namely: Financial Knowledge, Financial Behavior and Financial Attitude.  Results reveal that the financial knowledge score is 46%, financial attitude score is 60%, financial behavior score is 52%. The overall financial literacy score is 54% in the town.  There is a wide gap between awareness and holding of credit, investment products and current account.

  JEL Classification numbers: G21, JE016

  Keywords: Financial Literacy; Financial Knowledge; Financial Attitude; Financial Behaviour; OECD; Financial Inclusion.