DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A GAMIFIED APPLICATION TO PROMOTE FINANCIAL LITERACY IN NIGERIAN TEENS

Handling money can often times be very difficult, especially for young people. For example, in Nigeria, the majority of the youth do not have the practical knowledge that they need to handle money responsibly. That is where this project comes in: the design and implementation of a gamified app that helps to promote financial literacy among Nigerian teenagers. For this project, an agile methodology was used because it allowed the process to be broken down into smaller sub-processes and also allowed backtracking in case of any errors or updates. The smaller sub-processes focused on features like a user-friendly interface, parental supervision tools, along with fun learning tools, like quizzes, daily streaks, and leaderboards. To get a clear understanding of the needs of young people, already existing youth-centered fintech apps were reviewed, along with existing research on financial education, particularly youth financial education. It gave insight into the importance of cultivating financial habits early and how parents and governments can help with that. The proposed application allows parents to assign chores to their children, send them allowances, and monitor their activity, while allowing the teenagers to explore various financial concepts, both practically and theoretically, by taking daily quizzes, receiving allowances and chores from their parents, and saving on the app. All in all, this approach shows the importance of designing a tool tailored to the local culture and needs of Nigerian households.