DIGITAL FINANCIAL LITERACY: A CASE STUDY OF FARMERS FROM RURAL AREAS IN SARAWAK

Teo-Piaw Liew; Pei-Wen Lim; Yew-Chui Liu

Teo-Piaw Liew Kolej Komuniti Mas Gading, Bau, MALAYSIA
Pei-Wen Lim Kolej Komuniti Kuching, Kuching, MALAYSIA
Yew-Chui Liu Kolej Komuniti Santubong, Santubong, MALAYSIA

Abstract

Financial Technology (FinTech) development has transformed the services provided by banking and financial industry into digital mode. Financial Literacy solely is no more sufficient to ensure financial well-being of individuals and societal welfare. The Digital Financial Literacy (DFL) has therefore become increasingly vital aspect of education in the FinTech era. The key challenge is that there are significant gaps in DFL especially among the disadvantaged groups. Hence, this study intends to investigate the DFL among the farmers in Sarawak, a targeted group which are originated from rural areas. A total of 252 respondents was selected and a questionnaire adapted from Morgan et. al (2019) was administered to gauge their DFL in terms of four dimensions including knowledge of digital financial products and services, awareness of digital financial risks, knowledge of digital financial risk control and knowledge of consumer rights and redress procedures. The findings indicate that the respondents have moderate scores on the knowledge of digital financial products and services but low scores in the other three dimensions. This suggests that the FinTech development has left many of the country’s vulnerable people behind. It highlights the needs to promote DFL to disadvantaged groups via specific initiatives in order to achieve a more inclusive financial and economic development.

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