Lots of times, we hear it is good to save for a rainy day. However, statistic shows that Nigerians are not very big on savings. At least that is what the International Monetary Fund says. According to their data, the Nigerian gross saving rate is at 15%. Imagine a country with over 200 million people and only 15% is actually saving.

Many people will agree that savings helps improve financial security and standard of living, amongst other benefits. So, why is it difficult for Nigeria’s to save? Research has shown that poverty is the major reason why Nigerians don’t save; the unemployment rate in Nigeria is very high and lots of those that can find jobs earn low income.

Of course, it is generally believed that one should save after deducting your expenditure, but great minds like Warren Buffet believe otherwise. According to him, it is wise to save before spending, instead of saving what is left after spending. If one should go by this, then whether you have enough money or not, you are encouraged to save.

This is because saving is seen as an investment and investing is one of the ways you can get out of poverty. If saving is an investment, then as in every other investment, it is expected to give Return On Investment (ROI) or Profit.

Banks were built in order to encourage people to save their money in a secure, government licensed institution, while also gaining interest on their savings, as the institution uses their savings for business. But the very low interest rates banks generally give on savings, is a big discouraging factor for individuals when it comes to saying in a bank.

Below is an example of the top 10 banks in Nigerian and their interest rates for fix deposits at as September 4, 2019.

S/N	Name Of Bank	Demand Deposit Ave. Int Rate	Savings Deposit Ave. Int Rate	Time Deposit Ave. Int Rate
1	Access Bank	0.9	4.05	11.61
2	Ecobank Nigeria	0.01	4.05	8.86
3	First Bank of Nigeria	0.00	4.05	7.50
4	Stanbic IBTC Bank	0.63	4.20	7.68
5	Zenith Bank	0.47	4.05	8.63
6	United Bank for Africa	0.02	4.20	8.15
7	Standard Chartered Bank	0.00	4.22	7.24
8	Guaranty Trust Bank	0.47	4.20	8.18
9	Wema Bank	1.85	4.20	8.75
10	Keystone Bank Ltd	0.41	4.20	14.04

Amongst these ten banks, Keystone Bank seems to give the highest rate on time deposit. Looking at the interest rate on saving, you will see that the rates are almost the same across all the banks.

Imagine you save N20,000  with any of these banks, and in a year you get an interest of a little over N800, ridiculous right. Of course, it would have been more sensible if you invest the N20,000 in a business because you will definitely make much more than N800 as interest in a year.     

This is how a large percentage of Nigerians think. But we are talking about savings here and if the interest rate is a factor that can motivate people to save, how about an interest rate of 7 – 15% annually on your savings. Yes of course it sounds much better.

What are the best money saving platforms in Nigeria?

If you are looking for a platform where you can save, you just might have trouble picking one because they a so many of them these days. So to help you ease the stress of searching, here are lists of the top ten saving platforms.

1. PiggyVest

In 2016, PiggyVest saw the opportunity in the lack of saving culture in Nigerians. They also understood that one of the incentives that can get Nigerians to save is a higher return on savings. They initially launched out as “Piggybank.ng”, the first online saving platform in West Africa.

Three years after, they rebranded and became “PiggyVest”. From here on they started offering savings and investment opportunities. Currently, they have over 350, 000 users that save and invest billions of Naira monthly.

With this, they believe they have cracked the code to stop Nigerian from spending badly and save. According to PiggyVest, “we are on a mission to give everyone the power to better manage and grow their own finance, and we intend to be the best at this”.

In other to achieve this, PiggyVest have created several financial products that make them stand out from other financial companies or saving apps.

Piggyvest SafeLock

 This account is particularly for people who intend to save money for a long time. So if you want to save excess money that comes your way until it matures, this is the right account for you.

Features of SafeLock

• You get a 15.5% interest per annum
• Your get your interest paid directly into your Flex account upfront
• It is possible for you to access the interest immediately
• The longer you keep your funds locked up, the more interest you will get
• It is possible to have more than one SafeLock and give them different names for a different purpose
• Before you add more funds to your safeLock, the current fund in it must be above 90 days. However, you will be paid interest on the number of days remaining.
• You cannot access your SafeLock until maturity.

Piggyvest Target Savings

When you need to save towards a particular goal, this is just the saving for you. It can be for vacation, rent, business or to get a new gadget.

Features of Target Savings

• It offers 8% interest
• You can save as a group
• You can have as many Target Savings as you want
• It’s possible to end your Target Savings at any point in time. But on doing this you will lose you accumulated interest and a 1% processing fee will be deducted.

PiggyVest Flex Naira

This account is flexible savings account that is more like a wallet. When you earn interests from other PiggyVest accounts, this is where they are paid into.

Features of Flex Naira

• It has an interest rate of 8% per annum
• You can only withdraw from it 4 times a month
• You will lose all the interest accrued in your flex savings if you withdraw more than 4 times a month
• You are allowed to withdraw only once every 10 hours. This is because they are encouraging their users to be financially disciplined.
• During your free days, you are allowed to make withdraws into your Flex saving from your PiggyBank savings.

As if all these features are not enough, PiggyVest recently introduced a new feature for Flex called Labels, this feature helps you manage and categorize your funds in the wallet as you save for emergencies and different responsibilities. Examples are saving for generator repair, car repairs and even birthdays.   

PiggyBank Account

PiggyBank account is PiggyVest core account where you set up Autosave to automatically deduct money from your other bank account so you can save fund into your PiggyVest accounts.

Features of PiggyBank Account

• Your bank debit card is used for transaction
• You can keep track of your transactions on your PiggyVest dashboard
• It is 100% secure
• You can set your autosave to save N50 – N50,000 daily, N1000 – N200,000 weekly or N3,000 – N500,000 monthly
• You have the option of topping up your saving using Quicksave.

PiggyVest Flex Dollar

If you want to invest, save and transfer money in Dollars, the PiggyVest Flex Dollar account is just for you.

Features of Flex Dollar Account

• You can start with just $1 savings
• The interest is 7% per annum
• It is possible to withdraw in Naira or Dollar
• You don’t get charged when you withdraw into your Naira account
• If you are directing payment into your domiciliary account, you will be charged
• The interest rate on this account is compounded monthly
• The interest accrues daily, however it is paid monthly
• Currently, saving with an international card is not accepted.

Withdrawing from your PiggyVest accounts

It is very easy to withdraw from any of the saving options of PiggyVest. However, you most note that the aim of this account is to encouraging you to be discipline and resist the temptation to spend unnecessarily, so there are some measures put in place to prevent consistent withdraw.

From your Piggybank you can withdraw a minimum of N3,000. On your Flex Naira wallets the minimum is N2000. There is no maximum withdraw from either accounts.

Measures to help you curtail your withdraws

• You are required to set only 4 withdraw dates on which you can withdrew every month
• Making withdraw outside your set withdraw date attracts a fee of 2.5% penalty on the amount you withdraw
• You are allow to withdraw ones in 24 hours

Besides all these superb features PiggyVest has instead to enable you have simple, convenient, discipline and flexible saving experience, there are also some extra benefits they’ve got laid out for you for taking the wise decision to save with them.

Extra Benefits of saving with PiggyVest

PiggyPoints: Users that save at least N2,000 consistently in their Piggybank or Target wallet for 90 days and above, can earn points which is converted to cash in their Flex Account. 1 Piggy Point = N10.

The calculation is as follows:

N2000 – N4999 = 1 point
N5000 – N9999 = 2 points
N10000 – N49999 = 10 points
N50000 – N99999 = 25 points
N100000 and above = 55 points

PiggyVest, being the first mobile saving app in West Africa, of course created a base for other saving app to build on. Over the years several saving apps have emerged and all are trying to outdo PiggyVest in Return on Investment (RIO). However, many of the features of these new saving apps are much the same as PiggyVest.

Smartsave, Salvo and Kolopay are three of the fast growing kids on the block. These are a few of their features for you to compare with PiggyVest.

2. Smartsaver

Smartsaver are an online saving platform that aims to make saving more secure, easy and convenient.

Smartsaver features

• Paystack is used as their payment platform
• FCMB is their housing bank
• You can set your savings for daily, weekly or monthly deduction
• You can only withdraw 4 times a year and these are the withdrawer dates
  • 1st Free Withdrawal Quarter03/31/20202nd
  • Free Withdrawal Quarter06/30/20203rd
  • Free Withdrawal Quarter09/30/20204th
  • Free Withdrawal Quarter12/31/2020

In addition the Smartsave platform also offers:

• Smartsaver investment saving has the high ROI of 30%
• Saving with Smartsaver gives you a 2% quarterly interest, that’s 8% per annum
• The minimum period of their investment saving is 3 months
• When you want to withdraw your funds, it takes a maximum of 24hours
• You can stop automatic saving whenever you want

One benefits of using Smartsaver is you are eligible for loans. A special feature is that is supports the addition of a next of kin.

3. Salvo.ng

Salvo.ng aims to help its customers improve their saving culture by encouraging them to save percentage of their earnings daily, weekly or monthly. And they offer a high return on savings.

These are some of their features:

• Salvo app enables you set savings target to achieve
• The app has a calculator that automatically calculates how long and how much you need to save to achieve your objective. It also tells you how much interest you will earn at the end of the tenure  
• Their interest is between 10 – 15%
• If you wish to terminate your savings before the due date, you will pay a 3% fee
• You can have multiple target saving plan

One notable special benefit about Salvo app is that, if you have funds you are not sure of what to do with, you can deposit it in your salvo ewallet. But the down side is you will not receive interest on it until you commit it to a saving plan.

4. Kolopay

This mobile saving app works with you to save bit by bit towards a goal without any charge.

Features are:

• They give 10% per annum
• You have the option of saving any amount any time you want
• You can use it for crowdfunding by investing friend and family to contribute towards your objective
• You can set a fixed amount to be deducted from your bank daily, weekly or monthly.

5. Cowrywise

This is a platform that helps you plan, save, and invest. It gives you the ease of automated savings, which you can do daily weekly, or monthly. All you need to do is link your debit card to any of their savings options and the amount you decided will be deducted accordingly.

Cowrywise have four main saving plans which are:

• Regular Savings: The minimum saving period is 3 months and there is a promise of Juicy reward for choosing this plan.

• Life Goals: When you have important goals to achieve and you want to achieve it in a year, this saving plan enables you to do that. Also, it comes with amazing returns.

• Halal Savings: This savings plan is specifically for Muslims. It offers the option of saving without interests and you can save money with or without automation.

• Saving Circles: This saving plan is good for friends, group or cooperative that wish to meet a target saving. But individual can also use it to save for a specify target. It also has high returns.

Cowrywise features

• Their ROI is between 10 – 15%
• You can start a saving plan for as low as N100
• You can create as many savings plan as you want
• It is possible to pause a plan before maturity
• They have a management fee that is deducted from the interest on the investment plan you run
• Their charges for saving is free
• They have financial planning tools to help you budget and plan your expenses
• They have a means through which you can calculate your interest in regards to how long you want to save.

When it comes to investment, Cowrywise is seen as the top on the list. One reason for this is because of how easy their app is to use and their savings/investment runs on compound interest.

6. ALAT by wema

Wama Bank runs this app. This digital bank is designed to do more than saving and investment. With it you can open an account, start automated savings, invest, pay bills, and take a loan and much more. 

ALAT has a Savings and Goals product that helps you set budget and save for specify items. It is possible to set as many saving goals as you want and how much you want to save daily, weekly or monthly.

ALAT Features

• Pays 10% annually
• Registering with this app enables you to get a debit card delivered to you
• With it you can create a virtual dollar card for online payment
• With just your BVN and phone number you can open an ALAT account
• You can schedule bill payment using its scheduled payment features
• You can use your phone to activate, lock and unlock your debit card anywhere in Nigeria
• They offer direct customer support

One special benefit of ALAT is that you can use it to save with friends or get a device and pay later.

7. AXA Mansard Life Savings

AXA Mansard is basically an insurance company with decades of experience in life and non – life insurance products. Their service covers businesses, individuals and institutions all over Nigeria. Through three of their subsidiaries which are AXA Mansard Health Ltd, AXA Mansard Investments Ltd and AXA Mansard Pension Ltd, they offer health management, asset/investment management service and pension funds administrations.

However, since we are talking about savings, our focus will be on their unique savings plan called Life Savings. This plan gives you superior returns with free life insurance by just saving N2,000 monthly.

AXA Mansard Life Savings features

• Monthly minimum saving is N2,000
• Free life insurance of 250, 000 to 1 million
• 0.4% to 0.7% added to the normal CBN saving rate, depending on how much you save monthly
• You can use it as a target savings to meet feature needs
• Minimum saving period is one year
• You will lose the interest accrued if you choose to liquidate the savings before the first 24 months.

8. Kuda Bank

Kuda bank prides itself for being the bank of the free. They are recognized as the first fully digital only licensed bank in Nigeria. They don’t have branches; all their tractions are done directly from your phone.

However, they are in partnership with several banks, one of which is Access Bank. Through their partnering banks, you can do over the counter transactions and withdraw from their ATM without charges.

Kuda Bank features

• They charge no fee for all their transactions, like zero maintenance fee, zero withdrawal fee, zero transfer fee, free instant notifications etc.
• Their saving interest rate is 15% per annum
• You can pay bills, recharge your phone etc.
• You can plan budgets and track your spending on their platform
• They issue debit card
• They don’t have a minimum balance
• You can chat directly with them on their platform

Kuda platform is very convenient. The bank app is easy to operate and you can make ATM withdrawals free from any of their partner banks.

9. Sumo Trust

They are the first African fintech that has a powerful blockchain security protocol for its customers. Like every other online platform, it operates on automated savings. They offer a variety of saving options from saving for emergencies to shopping, owning a property, and even education.

Sumo Trust is run by Sumo Tech Global Ltd in Partnership with Entrepreneur Platform. Their aim is to help young and old entrepreneurs, students, parents, business owners, careerman and women save and raise funds for whatever objectives.

Sumo Trust has 4 types of savings plan and they are as follows:

1. Main Savings Account

If you want a regular savings account with good interest, this account will save you well. You can also use this account to save for emergencies or raise funds for a short time target. You can save daily, weekly or monthly. If for any reason you miss a saving date and you need to make up for it, you can just InstantSave the amount missed the previous day.

Features of this account

• 10% interest annually
• In other to help you be disciplined in your savings, you have to set withdrawal dates
• The saving period is 3 – 6 months

2. Fixed/Investment account

With this account, you can lock away your funds for a minimum of 1 year.

Features

• Interest rate of 15% per annum
• You cannot withdraw you funds until the end of the tenure
• If you wish to withdraw your funds before the due date you will incur penalty charges

3. Mission savings account

This account is meant to help you save money for a mission or particular project. All you need to do is set the amount you want to reach and how much you want to save daily, weekly or monthly.

Features

• Interest rate is between 10% per annum
• You can withdraw from this account free provided you reach your saving target
• A 4.5% penalty fee is deducted if you withdraw before your target date

4. Kick account

This account is like a wallet where all interests, affiliates earnings, bonuses, etc earned on SumoTrust are paid.

Features

• Withdraws from this account is 100% free
• You can make withdrawal from this account any time

Savings on the four account ranges from:

• 100-10000 Naira Daily
• 1000 – 100,000 Naira Weekly
• 5000 – 5,000,000 Naira Monthly

SumoTrust special benefits

• It’s possible to pause and continue with your savings anytime you want
• You can increase the amount of your savings and the frequency any time you want
• It has an InstantSave option that allows you to add more funds to your savings anytime, in the event that you miss a saving date.
• They have referral program call SumoTrust affiliates. If anybody uses your referral like to log on their platform and save up to N7,500, You will earn N600
• SumoTrust offers free business academy for its customers where they can learn new skills, gain mentorship and networking. To qualify for this, you must have a minimum balance of N50,000 in your Main or Mission savings account.

10. SwipeNG

This financial platform is set out to redefine the Nigerian fintech ecosystem by building the type of financial solution that can be found in developed societies. This they aim to achieve with their unique savings and deposit facilities they call Vault system and their credit card support system, which is quite new in Nigeria, as all other financial platforms offer debit cards.

SwipeNG has three Vault systems.

Swipe Cope

When an unexpected thing happens, you’ll need emergency funds to take care of it. Swipe core provides you with a convenient means to save for that rainy day.

Swipe Cope features

• Gives you 8% – 10% per annum interest
• Shavings should be done before the 15^th to be withdrawn on the last day of the month.
• Savings that are done after the 15^th of any month with be withdrawn on the last day of the next month
• You can top up any time.

Swipe Target

As it implies, it is a target saving plan where you can save for any set target or goals, like paying rant, taken a vacation, buying a car, your wedding etc.

Swipe Target features 

• 10% – 11%  interest annually
• You set a due date on which you can make withdrawal
• Minimum period is one month
• You can top up any time

Swipe Lock

This is much like the Swipe Target but the different is you the interest is higher and it has a minimum period of 3 moths.

Swipe Lock features

• 12% – 13%s interest rate per annum
• Minimum period of 3 moths
• You can only top up ones
• Top ups have a different cycle
• Funds can only be withdrawn on set date

Wrapping It Up

There you have it, 10 of some of the best investment and saving platform in Nigeria. There are still lots of other good ones, but their features are more or less similar. However, when choosing a platform, you should consider your objectives and financial muscle. This is just to say plan before you invest.

Without doubt, fintech has impacted positively on the saving culture of Nigerians. What has actually facilitated this is the electronic banking system that is currently prevalent. This easy way to transfer money and the juicy incentives these saving apps are offering are encouraging more and more people to save.

Of course as this market increases, more and more saving app will emerge with even more juicier offers. Currently, PiggyVest has the most products and flexibility, with a ROI of 7 – 25% on saving annually. Smartsever follows behind with a ROI of between 8 – 30% on saving annually. Next is Salvo, their ROI is 10 – 15% per annum. Least is Kolopay with 10% per annum.

PiggyVest also leads with special benefits like its Piggypoints and Referral Program.  With Smartsaver, being able to get loan is a notable benefit, while with Salvo, the fact that it offers the feature to calculate how much one needs to save to achieve a goal is great. Kolopay’s feature to save any amount at any point in time and the crowd funding feature makes it convenient.

In conclusion, it is obvious that these saving apps offer much better interest rate than the conventional, showing that the conventional banks have probable been taken advantage of its customers for decades.

So now that you have a better saving options with higher interest on savings, it all left for you to decide which to choose in other to save and mange your finance towards achieving that important goal.

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