Eden Grimes presented at the ISU 19th Annual Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression

By Eden Grimes

My presentation at the ISU 19^th Annual Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression was a brief overview of the research I have done under the mentorship of Dr. Saul Abarca-Orozco. The presentation “Financial Literacy Disparities: Comparing Sub-Saharan African and OECD Countries” examined the differences in financial literacy scores, highlighting financial knowledge and behavior, in the testing methods, and the results to better understand global gaps in how to increase financial literacy. I found through my research that a lack of an evaluation framework contributes to much of the missing information among sub-Saharan African countries around financial literacy. In addition, the lack of knowledge-sharing between OECD experts and sub-Saharan African economies leads to weak partnerships with unclear goals for addressing financial literacy gaps. However, African innovations in digital financial technologies, such as Mobile Money, have penetrated rural “unbanked” populations not engaged through the OECD in Africa. These innovations connect populations to financial resources and present opportunities for development and engagement to improve Financial Literacy.