The paper examines the issue of financial inclusion in South Africa by analysing the likelihood
of ownership of a bank account of an adult individual by race, education and income. While it is
acknowledged that bank ownership is not a sufficient measure of financial inclusion, it is still a
necessary condition for young entrepreneurs seeking further help in terms of acquiring loans,
credit facilities and financial advice. South Africa population is mainly made of four ethnic
groups, Africans, Asians/Indians, Coloured and Whites. Although racial segregation in South
Africa was ended on May 10th, 1994, there is still considerable evidence that self-employed and
entrepreneurs’ successes are related to their ethnic groups. The paper examines how likely it is
that higher education, after controlling for income, increase awareness of financial planning and
therefore bank accounts ownership. The paper uses first wave of the national income dynamic
study of South Africa. The paper uses regression model for categorical dependent variables. The
results indicate that Whites are far more likely to own bank accounts, followed by
Asians/Indians, Coloured, and finally Africans. The probabilities of having a bank account, for
citizens with a median income and median education years within their ethnic groups, are 92%,
63%, 35% and 29% for Whites, Asians/Indians, Coloured, and Africans, respectively. Education
is found to be a significant factor that increases the likelihood of owning a bank account. The
odds of owning a bank account increases by 15% for every extra year of education, holding race
and income constant. The Whites have the highest median years of education of 12, followed by
10 years for Asians, 9 years for Africans, and 8 years for Coloured.