Determinants of Financial Inclusion in a Developing Economy: Evidence from the Asokore Mampong Municipality of Ghana

Abstract

Enhancing financial inclusion remains one of the topmost priorities of world leaders. Thus through that, people who are normally considered vulnerable could easily get access to funding and hence lead to an improvement in their welfare. This study therefore using ownership of an account in any formal financial institution as a proxy, investigated the determinants of financial inclusion in the Asokore Mampong Municipality of Ghana. The study purposively sampled 300 respondents in the Municipality and also adopted the binary probit model as the empirical estimation technique. The findings revealed that, respondents who were 51-60 years, Christians, respondents with basic, secondary and tertiary levels of education, those employed , married and respondents who did not see the nearest financial institution to be too far, were more likely to own accounts. The study therefore recommended paying attention to the uneducated, unemployed, single /widowed/ divorced/ separated and proximity of financial institutions among others in designing policies towards enhancing financial inclusion.