UNCDF Digital & Financial Literacy Campaign — Cross-Sector Youth Outreach in Ethiopia

In June 2024, the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and Ethiopia's Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MInT), together with the National Bank of Ethiopia, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia and Ethio Telecom, launched a short campaign to raise digital and financial literacy among youth. It forms part of the Digital Financial Services for Resilience Programme (DFS4Res), funded by the European Union and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.

Running from 13 to 15 June 2024 in Addis Ababa, Hawassa and Adama, the campaign reached over 48,000 students across 32 secondary schools and 16 Technical and Vocational Education and Training Centres (TVETs), combining basic digital-skills content with financial-literacy material delivered by bank and telecom partners. Organisers stated an intention to use lessons from the campaign to expand into six local languages and reach more Ethiopian cities.

The reported figures are participation counts (students and institutions reached) rather than measured learning gains: no data on knowledge retention, behaviour change, or subsequent digital/financial-service uptake among participants has been published, and the source material explicitly notes the absence of outcome metrics. This should be read as a large-reach awareness activity within a broader, still-developing digital-financial-inclusion programme, not as a rigorously evaluated intervention.

Read the full analysis: https://etradeforall.org/news/campaign-enhance-youths-digital-literacy-ethiopia