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  To grow wealth and keep up with inflation in Nigeria, investing is a prerequisite. Inflation depletes the buying power of naira over time. The outcome is that the value of your monthly savings from salaries will diminish each day you do not invest in a worthy instrument. The Nigerian stock market has enticed a significant number of investors, both local and foreign.
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The Nigerian equity market returned 5% in 2021, which is well behind the 50% it delivered in the year 2020 when Bloomberg ranked the Nigerian equities market first in the world among the 93 markets it tracked. With the shift towards technology, people in Nigeria no longer have to walk into the banks and stock exchange companies to invest. Technology has greatly simplified the process of investing in Nigerian stocks over the years. There has been a shift towards investments in Nigeria to the mobile application that allows one to earn as one saves money. It provides Nigerians guaranteed investment opportunities without hassles. One can achieve benefits using savings and investment applications in Nigeria. All you need is a smartphone whether iPhone or android. Investment applications are online investment platforms designed to help people invest their money securely for profit-making. It gathers business opportunities that are worth investing in with promising returns for investors, then pushes these opportunities to the users for investment. From the applications, users can invest, oversee their investment and claim their profit. In using these apps, you do not need to worry about where to invest your money as they already partner with promising businesses, which are mostly endorsed and secure. All you have to do is go through opportunities and invest from the comfort of your bed. Nigerians need not be scared as these mobile applications conduct due diligence on businesses before allowing it in their platform. Even with the availability of savings accounts, saving money remains a herculean task to many people least of all investing in a worthy asset. According to Nairametrics, with the presence of about 210-250 FinTech companies/operators in Nigeria, the sector targets an unbanked population of 60 million Nigerians which is more than a quarter of the country’s estimated population of 200 million through the use of mobile apps. This is predicted to have been achieved by 2022. To make the matter worse, the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card at our disposal leads to the utilizing funds set aside for future purposes. The reason for these apps is that investing money is tasking due to the presence of numerous controversial investment companies and the eventual failure of investment companies either in the short-run or long run. This reason encouraged some financial technology (Fintech) companies to come up with lasting remedies to these problems. They rationalized and realized the need for effortlessly available, user-friendly, and digitally-oriented platforms where people can save and invest their funds without any difficulties. These led to the creation of several platforms in the form of mobile applications, computer software and websites known as FinTechs.
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Some of these apps are:
  1. Piggyvest: This app was formally known as Piggy Bank and was developed after the developers saw a tweet on 31st December 2015. The developers are two Nigerian youths Joshua Chibueze and Somto Ifezue. The app has several other features such as Piggy Bank, flex Naira and flex dollar, safe lock, target savings, and investify. The feature people should be interested in for investment is Investify. This allows people to invest in pre-vetted low-medium risk primary and secondary investment opportunities, starting from as low as ₦5000. There is a range of investment opportunities for users such as fixed income instruments, agriculture, real estate, and transportation. Investors can earn up to 24% interest per year using this service, depending on the industry and duration of the investment.
  2. Cowrywise: CowryWise is a close rival of PiggyVest and a major platform driving the Nigerian FinTechs. It was founded in July 2017 and owned by a group of financial technology experts with Edward Popoola and Razaq Ahmed as the co-founders. The application is very reliable and efficient with 100 000  plus downloads on the Google Playstore and a 4.5-star rating. It enables users to manage their finances and promote good saving habits. They offer services such as regular savings, life savings, halal savings, and saving circle with a 15 percent rate of interest. The investment plan offered by CowryWise is a mutual funds plan whereby investors can invest any amount and get returns based on the interest rate determined by the investment company. Cowrywise offers the following investment, Afrinvest Plutus Funds at 6.65% annual returns rate as well as   Meristem Money Market Funds at 4.11% annual returns rate, and so on. The plan is automated with a Systematic Investment Plan to enable you to invest a certain amount of your income periodically and you can earn interest from your investments and savings through Compound Returns. This simply means rolling over accumulated funds from savings and investments to another period instead of withdrawing them.
  3. Carbon: Carbon was founded by Chijioke Dozieand Ngozi Dozie in 2012. According to tech crunch, for the fiscal year 2020, the company, which has about 659,000 customers, said it processed ₦96.54 billion (~$241.35 million), up 89% compared to the same period a year ago and also, ₦13.02 billion (~$32.55 million) worth of investments was made on the platform, representing a 365% increase from the previous year. This shows that the carbon application is a sure and reliable way to invest your money. The investment plan on carbon is called Payvest. It allows one to choose any investment plan one wants e fixed deposit, one-time or periodic investment with varying rates of interest. It is worthy to note that a 10% withholding tax applies to all interest accrued on every investment such as the tax charged on the amount of interest earned by an investor on Carbon. Also withdrawing investments before the set date can lead to a user losing all accrued interest.
  4. Trove: Trove Technologies Limited (AKA Trove) is one of such FinTechs founded in 2018. The co-founders are Oluwatomi Solanke (CEO), Austin Akagu, Desayo Ajisegiri and Opeyemi Olanipekun. The platform is backed by Ventures Platform and ARM (Asset and Resource Management company), one of the biggest asset managers in Nigeria. They also received a grant from ARM Labs and the Nigerian Stock Exchange. With Trove, you can buy the shares of US, Chinese and Nigerian companies without human help. To trade on Trove, users can only make use of funds in their Trove wallet. You can deposit funds into your wallet via two means: card payment or bank transfer. The minimum investment amount on Trove is ₦1,000. It functions on iOS and Android devices.
  5. Bamboo: Bamboo is a digital investment platform that has officially launched its investment app. Bamboo was built to give Nigerians real-time access to buy, hold, or sell stocks listed on the U.S. stock market right from their mobile phones or computers. It was founded by yanmo Omorogbe and  Richmond Bassey. With as little as $20, anyone with a BVN can register, fund their accounts via multiple Naira or Dollar channels and in just a few taps start buying and selling shares or diversify their holdings by buying into a bundle of stock. Investments are tracked using the bamboo app and withdrawals can take up to1 to 3 days.
  6. Chaka: Founded in 2019 by Tosin Osibodu. Chaka enables Nigerians to invest in local and global companies from the comfort of their phones. For a long time, investing in stocks for Nigerians was limited to very wealthy individuals but with as low as 1000 naira, one can invest using Chaka application on mobile devices. Investments can be tracked using their website and application.
Choosing the right investment apps in Nigeria to invest your money securely and receive returns when they are due shouldn’t be difficult with this list as long as you can operate a smartphone. Money isn’t even a problem anymore as you can start investing with as little as N1,000 with some of the apps on this list.  These apps are among the best in Nigeria and don’t require a lot of money to start creating wealth. They are user-friendly, easy to understand, and secure so you need not worry about losing money. Featured Image Source: Arkenea
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This article was first published on 22nd January 2022

eyimegwu-ekene

I am an accomplished content creator and recently delved into technical writing. I enjoy using my skills to contribute to the exciting technological advances and create awareness of evolving technological trends in Nigeria.

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