Abstract
This study examined the Influence of Financial Literacy on the Financial Behaviour of Sub-Urban Traders. It aimed to determine the extent to which being financially literate can affect the choices and decisions of sub-urban traders when it comes to dealing with finance. In line with the convention in research, five research questions were raised for
investigation on the basis of the purpose and basic assumptions of the study. The research questions are;
1. What is the level of financial literacy of sub-urban traders in Ovia North east local government of Edo State?
2. What is the financial behaviour of sub-urban traders in Ovia North east local government of Edo State?
3. What factors influence the financial behaviour of sub-urban traders in Ovia North east local government of Edo State? 4. Is there a relationship between financial literacy and financial behaviour of sub-urban traders in Ovia North east local government of Edo State? 5. Is there a difference in financial behaviour between male and female of sub-urban traders in Ovia North east local government of Edo State? The design adopted for the study is the descriptive research design which provided the researcher the opportunity to conduct a general assessment of opinions, attitudes or feelings of respondents. The population was drawn from male and female sub-urban traders and in all,
250 respondents were involved. The stratified and proportionate sampling technique was used to select 125 respondents. The research instrument that was used for data collection was a questionnaire titled “Financial Literacy and Financial Behaviour Questionnaire” which was validated by the project’s supervisor and two other experts from the department of Adult and Non-Formal Education. The instrument was pilot-tested in a sample of 20 respondents who
were not part of the study sample to determine the reliability of the study. The method of data collection was through the administration of the instrument to the respondents. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics which analyzed the hypotheses formulated. The study revealed that some sub-urban traders does not have financial literacy skill as they are not aware about savings, credits insurance, investments, etc and in return, they tend to have poor negative behaviour financially. Although, some of them make a lot of sales but it does not guarantee a balanced financial behaviour as their businesses can be at risk when issues that relates to finance arises.
Based on the findings of this research, the following conclusions were reached as yielded by the data analysed;
There is a low level of financial literacy among sub-urban traders in Ovia North east local government area of Edo State. Also, Sub-urban traders have poor financial behaviour in Ovia North east local government area of Edo State.
The factors influencing the financial behaviour of sub-urban traders in Ovia north east local government area of Edo State are inflation and currency rates, access to current and reliable information, psychological biases such as overconfidence, and traders’ attitudes towards investments and savings. More so, there is a significant relationship between financial literacy and financial behaviours of sub-urban traders in Ovia North East local government area of Edo State. And finally, there is no significant difference between male and female sub-urban traders in Ovia North east local government area of Edo State.
