Does financial literacy enhance banking transactions among rural people with access to bank accounts? Insights from a field experiment in Ghana

Bank account usage is a fundamental indicator of financial inclusion. Across sub-Saharan Africa, various stakeholders actively work to improve access to banking. This study uses motivation, opportunity and ability theory, with self-efficacy as a boundary condition, to theorize the relationship between financial literacy and usage of a mobile-based, zero-cost bank account. In a field experiment with young adults in rural Ghana – a typical population for such interventions – multi-wave data from 142 individuals show that neither financial literacy nor its interaction with self-efficacy improves bank account usage. Follow-up surveys and interviews reveal other motivation- and ability-enhancing factors (i.e. income, and the need for bank accounts) that condition the causal relationship tested in the study. The study’s findings clarify the boundaries of the existing literature on the link between financial literacy and financial inclusion, while offering policymakers valuable insights into the conditions necessary for financial inclusion interventions to achieve the desired outcomes.