We are constantly thinking about how we find new ways to keep on strengthening financial inclusion and money democratization in Latin America. Year after year, we have been knocking down knowledge walls, and serving as an access door to information to allow more people to develop themselves every time. We believe that in order to achieve a systematic and sustainable change, training is essential. This is because it allows people to make informed decisions about their own economies as well as their ventures, and more widely speaking, enforce their rights and comply with their obligations as citizens. 

Considering the above, Mercado Pago has launched two financial education projects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay, in order to provide development tools for less privileged or traditionally segregated populations. On the one hand, they are intended to encourage thousands of micro-entrepreneurial women. On the other hand, they are intended to offer preliminary training to thousands of high school students in state schools. 

Financial education of jefas

Nowadays, over 7 million small and mid-sized companies are run in the region, while 50 % of them are led by women. Although they are the promoters of the economy and they create work, Latin American entrepreneur women are the ones who encounter more hindrances when it comes to access to financial management services and tools, which are a key element to make their projects grow and become official. Oftentimes, their businesses are run under the sidelines, with little capacity to escalate and have access to the formal financial system. 

With the aim of empowering their financial education, we have paired with Pro-Mujer, Aliança Emprendedora and Barkus, and together, we are offering management tools to increase their income generation capacity and project a sustainable business future, while standing by them throughout the development cycle of their entrepreneurship, regardless of their stage, such as, pre-incubation, incubation or acceleration. 

Through this initiative, we give them access to dynamic content on financial planning, fast methodologies, sales channels and financing. We offer contents specifically designed to move forward according to their own pace and needs. In addition, we promote a community of entrepreneurs: as part of a regional network. Women expand their networking possibilities, while mentors and live virtual classes are available to follow up on their training.

The financial education of young people

We know that there are no sustainable medium- and long-term changes if they are not based on education, in any social dimension. Of course, to generate profound transformations in populations affected by some type of structural gap, training cannot rest solely on sharing videos and tutorials. Building skills when young people are still at school is one of the biggest levelers in people's access to future opportunities. That's why we seek to teach them content in the most relevant way possible and do it on time.

For this reason,  we are proud of Mercado Pago's alliance with Junior Achievement Americas: together we have developed an initiative that provides training in basic financial education to 3,900 secondary students between 16 and 18 years old from state schools in the region.

Thanks to this project -which is carried out through a virtual campus, with onr-to-one monitoring of teachers-, boys and girls learn at an early age concepts such as savings, credit and personal financial planning, which will allow them to develop their ability to generate value and resources much better, both for themselves and for their communities.

Latin America financial education gaps

These Mercado Pago initiatives had researched financial education carried out together with Trendsity in 5 countries in the region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico) as their starting point  in 2021. This report shows that the growing adoption of digital means of payment and collection is driving interest and learning on different topics related to the world of finance, although there are still great challenges to be solved.

Seven out of ten banked people lack basic financial literacy; and 81% of the people consulted say that more education and information on digital financial services is needed. On the other hand, the data highlight a lower participation of women in the financial system in the region: 57% of men have a bank account versus 51% of women; only 10% of women can save against 16% of men; and 34% of men were able to answer 3 out of 4 financial instructions correctly, compared to 25% of women.

Bridging gaps is especially important in a context where access to digital accounts, credits and investments is increasingly massive: this is confirmed by the first Financial Inclusion Progress Index of Mercado Pago, which we recently presented after surveying more than 45,000 users in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, to measure the impact of financial services.

This multidimensional study carried out by Americas Market Intelligence shows that financial inclusion is developing at a fast and ongoing pace after the COVID-19 crisis. As a result, we can point out that 70 %  of users state that they carry less cash and their financial situation has improved, while 45 % of consumers have had access to a credit card or facility for the first time.