Last year, PiggyVest surveyed over a thousand Nigerians of various ages, genders, and income brackets about their saving and spending habits, debt management, and future financial plans. The findings were compiled into a report and released on October 31, 2023, World Savings Day.
Last week, the fintech company organised a roundtable conversation with industry leaders to discuss the report’s findings and explore collaborative opportunities for the ecosystem. The conversation focused on challenges that are hindering financial inclusion for Nigerians as well as strategies players and regulators can employ to enhance the alignment of financial products and services in line with the diverse needs of Nigerians across demographics.
Panellists at the roundtable include Tobi Amira, VP at Moniepoint, Ifeoluwa Orioke, Chief Commercial Officer at Flutterwave, Adejoju Ajani, head of data at Interswitch Group, and Olajumoke Alaka, Manager, Southwest Zonal office of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Other stakeholders present at the event included Chidera Ike-Okonkwo, Head of Innovation Unit at the Nigeria Data Protection Commission, Odun Eweniyi, Co-founder and COO of PiggyVest, Emmanuel Ojo, Managing Director of RedTech, Tochukwu Ironsi, Market Intelligence Specialist at Paystack, Elliott Kayode Sangoleye, Group Head E-Business at ProvidusBank, Gbenga Omolokun, Managing Director at VFD Microfinance Bank and Fadekemi Abiru, Head of Insights at Stears Inc.
The two-hour event had engaging deliberations about the Nigerian financial landscape, especially on the notions of income and debt.
“Because of the depth of the conversations and ideas shared, we ended up spending more time than we planned, said Odun Eweniyi, the COO and Co-founder of PiggyVest. “We focused on the income and debts sections of the report, and we’re grateful to the panellists for coming through.”
One of the important conversation points was debt and the proliferation of loan apps. According to the report, almost 4 in 10 Nigerians are in debt, and 26% of those in debt are indebted to loan apps.
Chidera Ike-Okonkwo highlighted the NDPC’s commitment to ensuring that predatory loan apps that violate the data protection laws are brought to book.
”It has been interesting to see a reputable fintech platform like PiggyVest curate an event like this — aimed at issues about Nigerians in debt and some of the reasons they’re in debt — and I’m hoping that the discussion leads to even better innovation and solution to these issues for Nigerians,” she added.
One of the panellists, Niyi Adenubi, Executive Director (Commercial), VFD Group Plc, who shared extensively about areas of collaboration within the ecosystem, said he enjoyed the event.
“The debate among the panellists was very productive and the curation of the discussion, as well as the report itself, was innovative and brilliant. I have to encourage PiggyVest to continue to curate innovative ways to discuss these issues, while we build the framework for executing on them,” he added.
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According to Eweniyi, the key takeaway from the event is the massive financial literacy education gap that exists. She urged fintech companies, government, private sector players and aid agencies to scale their efforts to address it as a collective.
“The scale of the work is massive; I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but collaboration is the first point to getting started,” she said. “These conversations continue to be relevant, and I’m looking forward to subsequent editions of the roundtable.”
An improved 2024 PiggyVest report
Recall that Akintunde Oyebode, Commissioner of Finance, Ekiti State, who wrote the foreword of the 2023 report, described it as ‘a breath of fresh air’.
“The report contains incredible insight for those responsible for shaping monetary and fiscal policies at national and even sub-national levels; it also provides very useful analyses for companies operating across various sectors of the economy”, he explained
Joshua Chibueze, the Chief Marketing Officer of PiggyVest, announced that the 2023 PiggyVest Savings Report is the first of what will now be an annual tradition for the company to provide up-to-date insight into how Nigerians navigate their personal and business finances.
According to him, the 2024 report will explore, among other things, the impact of the rapidly increasing inflation rate and the devaluation of the naira, and improve the research’s methodology.
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