Incentives, Subsidies, and Complementary Services to Promote Youth Financial Inclusion
This paper is one in a series of four Promising Practices Briefs written and commissioned by the SEEP Network’s Youth and Financial Services Working Group. These documents explore innovations and address operational issues in the promotion of effective financial services for youth.
This brief explores key lessons in ensuring effective design of incentives, subsidies, and complementary services, as well as the ways and conditions in which they can foster sustainable financial inclusion and build trust with these new customers. The paper first illustrates tested strategies to attract new clients (through targeted giveaways, rewards, etc.) and ways to structure those strategies in order to retain and empower these customers (including financial education, client protection, cost-sharing, and effective marketing channels and strategies). It then shows how incentives and subsidies can fit into integrated programs (through market positioning, synergies with national agendas, engaging staff and other stakeholders, etc.).
The paper addresses the following questions:
- How can subsidies be used effectively and made sustainable?
- What is the best design for a phased approach that goes from subsidy to capacity building to more sustainable services?
- How can youth programs tap into existing subsidies, such as government grants?
- What is the best way to help young people who were receiving grants to transition to more commercially oriented financial services once the grants end?
- How can subsidies “kick-start” services and awareness of services, and move clients toward accessing more commercial services?
