Joshua Jordan-Akintoye, CEO & co-founder of MyKolo, lost his mum to cancer and became an orphan in 2012 before he even got into the university. With a bleak outlook for the future, he picked up the fragments of life and built on Ajo/Esusu (a thrift savings system deep-rooted in the ancient Yoruba culture that his mother was involved in before her demise, alongside his sisters.
This traditional savings scheme helped Joshua get a diploma from the University of Lagos and saw him through acquiring his degree.
Joshua Jordan-Akintoye, a Nigerian living in the United Kingdom, and his co-founders are building MyKolo, a rotational savings and credit score-building company for immigrants, particularly Nigerians and underrepresented groups, in the UK.
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In a conversation with Technext, Joshua said MyKolo is a continuation and extension of his mum’s legacy.
“We’re not just selling products, we’re selling dreams, culture, tradition, community.” – Joshua Jordan-Akintoye.
The idea behind MyKolo
It is often said that there is no financial product “looking like home” for the average Nigerian immigrant in the UK. Newbies struggle to access mortgages due to bottlenecks around credit history.
This is the gap MyKolo intends to fill.
“When I moved to the UK, my friend who had been here earlier told me that the financial environment was complex and difficult to understand. The credit rating building system isn’t straightforward for the newbie.
Imagine an immigrant medical doctor who earns above the minimum wage and is in the top 1% of earners, but cannot buy a house even though he has the money. But he cannot purchase it because he doesn’t have a credit history in the UK. He won’t be accepted for the mortgage. He has been paying rent but it doesn’t count for credit.”
MyKolo intends to cater to this market segment of Nigerians in the UK. ‘Kolo’ is a Yoruba word for cash box – a common and ancient object used to store valuables like coins, paper money, and jewellery. Now, MyKolo is a familiar platform for Nigerian immigrants and underrepresented communities in the UK to save and invest their money.
Joshua gives a clearer perspective:
“The medical doctor would set a savings target and begin to save every month. MyKolo will report the saved money to the credit bureau to boost credit score and at the end of the 12-month cycle, he will collect some interest.”
He describes it as a three-way street – you save, build credit score and earn interest. By offering 4.5 – 5% annual interest rates, MyKolo users can save, earn similar returns obtainable in traditional banks, and also build credit scores along the line. Partnership agreements with the two major Credit Bureaus (TransUnion and Equifax) are underway, according to Joshua.
Harbouring great respect for the work Wemimo Abbey and his team have done, Joshua Jordan-Akintoye says his big goal is for MyKolo to become the United Kingdom equivalent of Esusu, which is based in the United States.
Milestones and outlook for the future
Launched in 2022, MyKolo has been run on a traditional model (via WhatsApp) – people save money and get it back after some time – for about 12 months, and the company has been able to process around €18K, according to Joshua.
One of the testimonies of this is an immigrant student who was able to pay for their post-study work visa application through the money saved with MyKolo.
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Also, the startup made it to the top 20 of an incubator program and the waitlist for the mobile app on the MyKolo website has over 200 people signed up. Conversations with a medical professionals’ union that provides rotational savings for migration to the MyKolo app after launch have also proved positive.
With a solid foundation, the MyKolo team is open and looking forward to speaking with top investors like Olumide Soyombo, Gbenga Agboola, Yele Badamosi, Abdul Hassan of Mono and Goke Olubusi.
One of the unique features of MyKolo is that competitors are only building rotational savings, without attention to reporting credit scores. This is just one of the outstanding benefits of the company.
“An average immigrant from anywhere knows and understands this.” Joshua Jordan-Akintoye remarks.
MyKolo is truly one startup to look out for.
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