Abstract:
To acknowledge widespread lack of personal financial literacy casts serious doubts on the ability of individuals to make financial decisions. Topics on personal financial literacy are still considered minimal in Tanzania thus why this study aimed to verify Tanzanian colleges and universities student’s level of personal financial literacy and focused on investigating the effects of academic courses, demographic characteristics and money management on student’s personal financial literacy. With particular reference to eight Dar es Salaam’s colleges and universities, the study sought to find out the impact of personal financial literacy in student’s opinions and decisions.
The research design used during the course of this study was a descriptive survey research design. The initial targeted sample size was 160, however, the realized sample size is 135 which is equivalent to 84%. The sampling frame included students from colleges and universities in Tanzania. The researcher employed mixed analysis techniques which include descriptive statistics, chi-square, and logistic regression and used STATA as the analysis tool.
Findings were consistent with various studies which have been conducted on the topic globally that college and university students have the low level of financial literacy. It was also found that academic courses, demographic characteristics, and money management have significant impacts on the level of financial knowledge of higher learning students. It was concluded that the results were alarming and that action in increasing the financial literacy of the college and university students should be undertaken. Finally, the limitations and recommendations are included to help further researchers to have a better finding of the results
