Testing the Waters: YouthSave Pilot Results from Three Markets

This paper presents research findings on the potential of youth savings accounts as a tool for youth development and financial inclusion in developing countries.The YouthSave Consortium worked with bank partners in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya, and Nepal to conduct a rigorous product development process and evaluate the product usage among their clients. The project began by conducting market research with over 2,100 youth and 400 adults.The results enabled the bank partners to design four different youth savings products that incorporated country-specific findings. The partners in Ghana, Nepal, and Kenya proceeded with a pilot-test of the new products while the bank in Colombia took the product to market without further testing. Overall the banks opened 1,317 youth savings accounts during the pilots, but the most interesting results are those that look at the drivers behind the numbers. Findings include:

• Young people's access to the accounts is dependent on several factors, including proximity to branches, identification documents, and a trusted adult to act as the account co-owner;
• Staff buy-in at the branch level proved important in securing more youth for signing up to the new products;
• Deposits significantly outpaced withdrawals in all locations. In Nepal, deposits outpaced withdrawals by a factor of 218 in terms of transactions;
• Youth in researched markets reported that they liked being clients of a bank, as this was considered a privilege and a sign of social prestige.