Kairos, an early-stage investment fund in U.S. has listed Nigeria’s CowryWise as one of its “50 world-changing start-ups to watch in 2019.” The automated investing platform was shortlisted out of a pool of 2,500 early-stage start-ups which were referred from over 65 countries across the Globe. Each Shortlisted company has been awarded a $50,000 investment fund.
Kairos’ annual list focuses on start-up founders tackling the world’s vital issues—- issues like trimming student loan debt and turning homes into co-working spaces and everything in between.
CowryWise are trying to alleviate Nigeria’s bad saving culture by making it easy and possible to save money, no matter how small. In some African markets where unpredictable economy is on the rise, it seems there are no options for the increasing middle class to save their money.
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For example, Nigeria experienced a steady growth in the number of middle class citizens – accounting for about 23 percent of the population, says African Development Bank.
All these prompted two college friends, Razaq Ahmed and Edward Popoola to come up with a financial service dubbed CowryWise, specifically for the middle class in Nigeria to save.
CowryWise provides Nigerian investors a way to save their money by investing in high-yield government bonds. The company is based in Lagos, is amongst start-ups by Y Combinator in the African continent, and a typical example of entrepreneurial talent that is emerging from sub-Saharan Africa. You can start a savings plan with as little as one hundred naira.
With almost 57 million savings accounts available in Nigeria and over 32 million unique bank users. By investing in the bonds, it gives you access to interest rates that range between 10 percent and 17 percent. To use CowryWise, you will have to sign up your email address, phone number and link your bank account up to the platform.