Determinants of Access to Financial Services among Adults in Tanzania: The Evidence from FinScope Tanzania Survey (2017)

Abstract

There is low financial inclusion across developing countries, especially those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) including Tanzania. Almost three quarter of the SSA citizens don’t hold any form of account with a formal financial institution. East African countries have poor access to financial services especially the highly populated rural areas. The study examined the determinants of access to financial inclusion among adults in Tanzania. The study used a longitudinal research design to access data collected from 9459 respondents who were selected from the FinScope Tanzania 2017 which were weighted by NBS. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and Binary Logistic Model as inferential statistics with aid of STATA version 16. The study was able to find out that individual savings as a key determinant to financial inclusion was relatively low this being due to income gap, education and access to technology. Most of the respondents were willing to save but many-faced constraints to save. finally, the determinants of access to financial services in Tanzania among adults was identified to be age, education level and income. The study concluded that financial inclusion (access to financial services) among adults in Tanzania was mainly determined by age, education and income. Therefore, the effort should be made by the government to stimulate technological adoption so as to enhance variety of service delivery mechanism and provide financial knowledge to the society to inform people to make proper decisions regarding their financial well-being.