Youth and savings in AssetsAfrica

As youth transition to adulthood, their ability to save and accumulate assets becomes very important as they begin to accept financial responsibilities and plan for the future. In this paper, we investigated the effects of an asset building intervention on youth asset accumulation in Masindi, a rural area in Uganda. Two waves of data were collected on youth, between 15 and 35 years of age, for both the treatment and comparison groups. We used a Propensity Score Matching (PSM) technique and Difference-in-Difference model to estimate the effects of the asset building intervention. We find that the mean difference in financial assets ($763.17), total wealth ($897.75) and net-worth ($1117.83) are statistically significant in favor of the youth in the treatment group. However, the mean difference in productive assets ($3.77) is not statistically significant. The results show that youth in rural Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are able to accumulate substantial assets that may well contribute to their well-being in the long-term.