Is Financial Education and Understanding the Key to Financial Inclusion?

Financial education is often positioned as the high-positioned missing link to financial inclusion, but does understanding money matter if you don’t have fair access to the financial system? In this episode of the Interledger Salon, host Sheena Allen, a serial entrepreneur and fintech founder, is joined by Evan Leaphart and Ronaldo Hardy to examine the role of financial education and the limits it reveals in advancing financial inclusion. Drawing from their experiences building, funding, and operating financial tools for underserved communities, the conversation interrogates whether education empowers participation or unintentionally shifts responsibility away from flawed systems. Together, they explore how trust, access, infrastructure, and incentives intersect with financial knowledge, and where education alone falls short. This discussion asks whether financial inclusion begins with teaching people how money works or with redesigning the systems that determine who money works for.

Host: Sheena Allen: tech founder, entrepreneur, international speaker, and media creator with a decade of experience building companies across technology, fintech, and digital media. [https://www.sheenaallen.com/]

Guest:

• Evan Leaphart: fintech entrepreneur and the founder of Kredit Academy, a platform focused on financial education and credit-building for adults and children. His work centers on embedding financial capability into everyday life through partnerships with financial institutions and community organizations. [https://www.evanleaphart.com/]
• Ronaldo Hardy: CEO of Balance Financial Wellness and a former credit union CEO with deep experience in financial coaching and leadership development. He works at the intersection of financial wellness, behavior change, and community-based empowerment. [https://ronaldohardy.com/]