How Piggyvest Helped Nigerians Save $585 million in 2021
Nigeria-based online savings and investment company PiggyVest, announced on January 1st, 2022 via its newsletter that it successfully paid out over N242 billion ($585 million) in 2021 to customers. The payout for 2021 doubles in comparison to 2020, which was announced to have amounted to N90 million.
“With over 3.5 million customers and over N242 billion naira successfully paid out in 2021 alone, we are once again saying thank you for trusting us”.
Cofounded in 2016 by Joshua Chibueze, Somto Ifezue, and Odunayo Eweniyi as piggybank.ng. In an interview with Zero to Scale, cofounder Joshua Chibueze revealed that the inspiration for starting the company was from a tweet shared by someone who saved N1000 every day in a saving box. Adopting the model of a traditional kolo or saving box, it developed a digitalized savings-only platform that helped users to save N21 million in the first year.
It rebranded to “PiggyVest” in 2019 and began offering investment opportunities, in addition to the savings options for its users.
So far, the platform boasts to have amassed over 3.5 million users and has become a trusted online saving platform for Nigerians.
Amidst rumors that surrounded the tech company last year of loss due to fraudulent investments with Imagine Lenders, PiggyVest has been able to build trust with Nigerians with the promise of financial freedom. Offering interest on money saved within a specific period. The platform promises users ease while saving, as it also helps Nigerians build discipline.
Swallowing up competitors
The FinTech company acquired its smaller competition Savi.ng in July 2021. This acquisition announced via their Medium blog post was a major highlight for the company for the year.
Savi.ng was founded in 2018 as a wealth management app that allowed users to save money, through various feature offers such as Pay as You Earn (PAYE), fixed deposits, and automated savings. After the acquisition, it onboarded previous users on Savi.ng onto the PiggyVest platform, expanding to a wider reach.
How PiggyVest Works
PiggyVest offers users 8% to 13% interest rates per annum on savings, – surpassing interest offered by conventional commercial banks- through various unique saving options.
The features include the SafeLock option which allows users to set aside money for a specified period without access to it until it attains maturity. This feature is similar to a fixed deposit account.
There is also the Piggybank feature which allows users to build a strict saving habit by automatically depositing specified amounts according to users’ daily, weekly or monthly preferences. The Target saving feature helps users save towards a specific goal such as for fees, rent, etc., at 9% interest rest per annum.
Lastly, Flex Naira savings feature for flexible savings towards emergencies that offers 8% per annum interest on savings.
PiggyVest adopts an interactive model with users that also help foster trust. Spotlighting best savers for each month and engaging with users on social media as well as responding to customers’ complaints.
What to Expect in 2022
It was also announced via the newsletter that PiggyVest would; overhaul the app, to make it more secure and user-friendly. It will also bring about more investment opportunities via Investify; provide better and faster support for customers and; embed more features that would help in the user’s financial journey.
“We are bringing loads of investment opportunities for you via ‘Investify’, which is PiggyVest’s way of helping subscribers grow their wealth. We will also ensure better and faster customer support this year” the CEO said in a statement.