PiggyVest, the digital saving platform that allows Nigerians to save and invest, has been touted by numerous Nigerians as a platform that has helped them to meet their saving goals.
The latest episode of First Class Material, features the founders of PiggyVest, Odunayo Eweniyi, 25, and Joshua Chibueze, who first met at their University in Nigeria. Along with Somto Ifezue, who they also met in University, they worked together on a digital job site called PushCV in 2014. In 2016 they founded PiggyVest.
The PiggyVest co-founders started the platform as a solution for Nigerians who want to save on a safe platform and also receive interest on their savings. On this episode of FCM, they spoke about PiggyVest and how it came about.
Joshua Chibueze, co-founder/Chief Marketing Officer of Piggyvest, said it started as a “weird story”.
He recalled: “There was this picture that went viral on the internet in December 31st, 2015, where someone broke her (saving) box and she was able to save 365, 000 Naira from putting aside 1,000 Naira every day in the box.”
He said this prompted them to come up with PiggyBank.ng as everyone wanted to follow suit but there was no digital saving platform in Nigeria at the time.
Though PiggyBank, now known as PiggyVest, was born as a digital alternative to using a saving box (or kolo as it’s popularly known in Nigeria) it is way more than just a digital saving platform.
Odunayo Eweniyi, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Piggybank.ng explained how PiggyVest allows you to do more than you can do with your physical saving box.
She said: “Piggyvest is an automated savings and investment platform that helps Nigerians put aside little amounts of money daily, weekly, or monthly towards a target and then present them with micro-investment opportunities that gives them competitive rates that they can use to then grow their funds.”
Joshua explained that Nigerians were sceptical about saving on PiggyVest because of the prevalent rate of scam in the country. But he explained efforts they’ve made to gain the trust of Nigerians.
He said: “From the very beginning, we knew trust was going to be a major factor, so what we did was, we had partnerships with a couple of microfinance banks. In 2017, we had a partnership with a commercial bank, and just recently, when we raised 1.1 million Dollars, we had to acquire our own microfinance bank license…”
It is one thing to have an idea and another to implement it. The founders of PiggyVest explained how they were able to get their idea to become a real product.
Joshua explained: “It wasn’t that difficult to start because we already had a structured team and there was some level of expertise in the team, so things like building the prototype, initial marketing, customer service, all those things were sorted out so there was no… we were basically using proceeds from our previous companies to run this as a side project at the time.”
Odunao explained that PiggyVest stood out because of the benefits it presented to the user over other saving options.
“The major difference between PiggyVest and the traditional Esusu arrangement will be the fact that PiggyVest is completely automated,” Odunayo explained. “So, there’s no manual operation on the platform. So, once you just sign up and give the platform instructions, it carries it out. The second thing is discipline. When you use the platform, especially when you’re using the Piggybank wallet, you’re not able to withdraw from your savings for 90 days, so we encourage people to save in three months burst, so you have substantial amount before withdrawing.”
Odunayo Eweniyi, Joshua Chibueze and Somto Ifezue, all under 30, have won numerous awards within and outside Nigeria for their work in the tech space.
First Class Material is a show brought to you by Linda Ikeji Media and sponsored by First Bank of Nigeria. It features Nigerians who are standing out positively locally and globally.
Watch the latest episode below. To watch previous episodes, go to lindaikeji.tv or watch on Linda Ikeji TV on YouTube.
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