DETERMINANTS OF FINANCIAL LITERACY AMONG MILLENNIAL EMPLOYEES: A CASE STUDY OF KILIFI COUNTY GOVERNMENT

Abstract

Background: The purpose of the study was to determine financial literacy among millennial employees of Kilifi county government. The study was guided by the following research objectives; knowledge level of literacy among the millennial employees, demographic characteristics of millennial employees and socio-economic factors of millennial employees. The study sought to determine the financial literacy among Kilifi County Government millennial employees in Kenya. Methodology: Across-sectional survey design was used. A sample of 144 millennial employees was randomly selected to reflect the population of Kilifi County Government millennial employees. Stratified random sampling (a sampling technique where strata are identified and sample units obtained randomly through proportional allocation) was used to ensure that demographic and socio-economic considerations are fairly represented in the sample. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the employees. The explanatory variables under this study were included; gender, age, marital status, education levels, employment status, personal income, and financial education/knowledge while the response variable includes financial literacy (investment held, savings and portfolio held) were also added. Regression analysis was used to find out the relationship between financial literacy and financial education. Results: The study found out that, financial literacy level among the millennials vary with gender, where men are seen to be at 63%and women 51.5% levels of financial literacy among millennials. Both formal and non-formal sources of information play a vital role in determining the financial literacy level of millennial employees, however, experience with financial matters is a major determinant. The influence from Education vi level, culture, income level, and marital status was statistically insignificant (0.08) when tested at 0.05 level of significance. Conclusion: Financial literacy is a global concern. In Kenya people are still not much aware about their finance related issues. The results suggest that level of financial literacy varies significantly among respondents based on various demographic and socio-economic factors. Similarly, sources of information & financial advice influence individuals’ level of financial literacy and investment choice decisions. It can therefore be concluded that financial literacy level gets affected by gender, age, education, other wealth factors and sources of information & financial advice, whereas it does not get affected by occupation status, occupation type and personal income.