The Fintech Apps Helping Gen Z Girls in Nigeria to Save
I saved the first money I ever got in a tin of Milo after I licked it clean.
I was ten years old, and my mother had just ‘paid’ me for rubbing talcum powder on my baby brother's chest after she had bathed him. 9 years Later, I saved money with the Piggyvest App. I was in 200 level, and my friend told me to download it so she could get the 1000 Naira referral bonus the App gave when you shared the referral link. It would push me towards saving for the first laptop I bought for myself. I would stash away a portion of my monthly earnings into the app and lock it when it had reached a significant amount. Saving to acquire property that'll help my craft and sometimes even less important things like birthday parties was something I had watched my mother and grandmother do.
Like me, many other Gen Z girls grew up watching their parents use cooperatives for thrift savings or ‘ajo’ civil servants, and traders would save with their colleagues or a cooperative member. When they got the money at the end of the year, they would buy foodstuff for Christmas and settle debts. Our parents seem to have passed their distrust of banks to us as more Gen Zs prefer using cool fintech apps than conventional banking apps for saving, investing, and making payments.
A search for popular fintech apps Piggyvest, Cowrywise, and Bamboo on Twitter brings up many tweets including complaints from people, primarily young women, talking about the hurdle of withdrawing or saving money on these apps.
But beyond these, you’ll also find real heartfelt testimonials from people who’ve been positively impacted by these apps.
To learn more about the experience of the Gen Z girls using such fintech apps, I spoke with a few of them about how these apps actually help them achieve their financial goals.
"I save 200 Naira every day on Cowrywise. I will collect it in December. It's like a free money gift to myself." This was the first response I got from a baker named Daejoke.
"I have been using Piggyvest since I was at 100 Level. I started saving Naira daily then, but now I'm in my final year; I save more money now, but not daily," Oluchukwu, a writer, responds.
Ijeoma, another respondent, tells me she uses the App to save to buy birthday presents for her loved ones. "I use Piggyvest, and I started using it on April 2nd this year, after my birthday. I usually use my savings to buy birthday gifts for my loved ones. I started using the app, although I have personal savings. But, basically for birthday gifts. It has been much easier to save with Piggyvest. Much easier," she says.
Most of the young women I spoke with described their experience with these apps as saving little by little 400 Naira or 200 Naira every day and then moving on to stash more significant amounts of money at a time. This is the experience Tonia described. "I started using it in, like, 2019. I was saving 400 Naira daily, so that after three months, I’d have 40K. I’d split the money into two, convert some to target savings and spend the rest, or continue saving. I won’t lie. With the 40K I save every three months, I have drastically upgraded my life. I used it to buy makeup, wigs and everything I couldn’t ask my parents for. Now, I save 3K weekly, it’s still roughly the same thing, but I got tired of the daily alerts."
Some of the young women I spoke to learned to save from their parents. Melanie explained to me that her parents leveraged community approaches to saving back in their day. "My parents saved with cooperatives. They taught me that saving was important and a good way to reduce spending, eradicate debts and finance projects."
Since most of these girls are students or just graduating from university, they save so that they can spend on items that their parents do not cover. Like me, most of them learnt about the apps from their friends. But for some like Angel, they began using them as brand ambassadors.
"I did an ambassador thing for them in 2019. That’s when I opened my account. I started saving 50, 100, and 150 Naira but stopped because I couldn’t afford it, but I had like 3k that I used to buy a chamber and AIESEC form. Anyway, fast forward to December 2021. I worked many jobs, saved for a new phone and got it in Jan 2022. I still remember transferring money from my Flex account. I also saved it for my laptop and got it in like two months. I kept most of the salary from my last job, NFT profits, and I’m still living on my savings. For context, I lost my job in December last year. I also saved separately for my December birthday for about six months last year. I spoiled my siblings and parents on their birthdays. Gave my dad 100k for free,e thanks to PiggyVest. So yeah PiggyVest works. I’ve also used Cowrywise (currently an inactive ambassador too), but with Cowrywise, you can’t move your money out except if it’s in the stash, and you pay 25 Naira for any transfer out; PiggyVestoesn’t charge, and flex account is equivalent to Cowry wise stash wallet. So with Cowry wise, if you lock your money in savings, you can’t withdraw until the maturity date no matter what. With Piggyvest, you have free withdrawal days and can start anytime, but with a 5% breaking fee," Angel explains to me in detail.
Gen Z girls aren’t just using these apps to save though. They’re also getting more involved with investments thanks to the tools and advice on these apps. Goodness Onu, a 21-year-old student and fashion designer, described how she stashes away some of the money she makes from her business and invests it.
"Mint offers mutual funds options. So I deposit funds in my investment account,t and it works for me. I also used Piggyvest to convert my naira to dollars. So as the naira was falling, my dollar gained more value which meant more money than I initially started with. I got into the investment process by exploring the apps," she concludes with a laugh.
CowryWise launched in 2017 to the general public with tools that allowed users to start saving and investing in periodic plans. Previously known as 'PiggyBank,' Piggyvest launched in 2016 to help users better manage their finances by allowing more flexible savings as users can choose daily, weekly, or monthly. Users can save money for a specific goal. They can also impose withdrawal limits on the account.
Speaking to the mission and impact of the app, Joshua Chibueze, CMO of Piggyvest shared with Kenga that, “Before we started PiggyVest in 2016, there wasn't a strong culture of saving or investing in Nigeria, especially among young people. The options available at the time were mostly mutual funds, treasury bills or wooden boxes. These had high barriers to entry or were simply unsustainable for most young people. PiggyVest made it possible to start with as low as N100 for savings or N5,000 for investments, which profoundly impacted Nigeria's savings and investment landscape. This has enabled millions of young people to participate in traditional investment options that were previously out of reach due to financial constraints.”
Today, Piggyvest and Cowrywsie have become the most popular options for Afro Gen Z girls looking to save and invest. However, not all the experiences I got from the young women I spoke to were positive.
25-year-old Kehinde Ayodele shared that, "I’ve been using [Piggyvest] since 2019. I usually save 500 days, but then my phone was stolen, and I couldn’t retrieve my sim. Since there are no number-change options to get verification codes, I can’t get my money out. I’ve been sending emails, but they don’t respond on time. I feel like there should be a way people can change their phone number to access their funds without doing a lot of paperwork. My money is still there today, and I'm unable to get it. It’s frustrating, but it’s a nice app to save money when it works."
Issues aside, one thing can be certain—fintech apps like Piggyvest, Cowrywise, Mint, and more are making it easier for Gen Z girls in Nigeria to take charge of their financial futures by starting to take one step at a time to build wealth by building healthy saving and investing habits while young.
It’s a perfect story of imperfect apps improving bit by bit as they try to create a better, wealthier world for Africa’s youth.
