Financial inclusion and entrepreneurship willingness of youth: Evidence from Mali

This study examines the determinants of youth financial inclusion and its impacts on their willingness to become entrepreneurs in Mali. The World Bank's Global Findex database is used to perform Logit estimations and propensity score matching. We find that the financial inclusion of youth seems to be more determined by the attainment of a high level of education, employment status, living in a wealthy family, and having at least one family member with a bank account. Three factors appear as barriers to better financial inclusion of youth: the cost of financial services, the lack of money, and the perception that financial services, savings in particular, are not a necessity. The study also shows that savings and loans have a statistically significant impact on the willingness to engage in entrepreneurial activity, even in the agricultural sector. Particularly for young people, providing them with loan services seems to have more impact than other financial services on the desire to undertake agri-entrepreneurial activity. The study recommends the strengthening of public policies aimed at expanding credit to youth because of its high impact on their willingness to engage in entrepreneurship in general and in agri-preneurship in particular in Mali.