PiggyVest Finance Roundtable Sparks Insightful Conversations Among Industry Leaders

L-R: Joshua Chibueze (Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, PiggyVest), Emmanuel Ojo (Managing Director, RedTech), Gbenga Omolokun, (Managing Director, VFD Microfinance Bank), Adejoju Ajani (Head, Data and Analytics at Interswitch Group), Tobi Amira (Senior Vice President, Loans at Moniepoint Inc.), Chidera Ike-Okonkwo (Head, Innovation Unit at Nigeria Data Protection Commission), Elliott Kayode Sangoleye (Group Head, E-Business at ProvidusBank), Tochukwu Ironsi (Market Intelligence Specialist, Paystack), and Olajumoke Alaka (National Information Technology Development Agency).

On Tuesday, February 13, 2023, The PiggyVest Finance Roundtable convened industry leaders, including Tobi Amira of Moniepoint Inc., Ifeoluwa ‘IO’ Orioke of Flutterwave, Adejoju Ajani of Interswitch Group, and Olajumoke Alaka of the national Information Technology Development Agency, alongside other influential figures in finance and tech, in Ikoyi, Lagos.

Other stakeholders present at the event included Chidera Ike-Okonkwo (Head, Innovation Unit at Nigeria Data Protection Commission), Odun Eweniyi (Co-founder and COO, PiggyVest), Emmanuel Ojo (Managing Director, RedTech, Heirs Holdings), Tochukwu Ironsi (Market Intelligence Specialist, Paystack), Elliott Kayode Sangoleye (Group Head E-Business, ProvidusBank), Gbenga Omolokun, (Managing Director, and Fadekemi Abiru, (Head of Insights, Stears Inc).

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 comprehensive report and released on October 31, 2023, World Savings Day.

The roundtable was curated to discuss the report’s findings and explore collaborative opportunities for the ecosystem, challenges hindering financial inclusion for Nigerians, and strategies to enhance the alignment of financial products and services with the diverse needs of Nigerians across demographics.

Akintunde Oyebode, Commissioner of Finance, Ekiti State, who wrote the foreword of the report,

In a market where reliable consumer data, let alone insight, is painfully scarce, this report by PiggyVest is 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.

One of the core points of the conversation 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, Head, of the Innovation Unit at Nigeria Data Protection Commission, 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 said.

The event spanned two hours, encompassing enga deliberations on the Nigerian financial landscape, particularly on income and debt.

Because of the depth of the conversations and ideas shared, we ended up spending more time than we planned, said one of the panellists, Niyi Adenubi, Executive Director (Commercial), VFD Group,

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 and 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.

L-R: Ibukun Akinola (Head, Customer Finance, PiggyVest), Odunayo Eweniyi (Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer, PiggyVest), Joshua Chibueze (Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, PiggyVest) at The PiggyVest Finance Roundtable which was held on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.

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. He said that the 2024 report will explore, among other things, the impact of the rapidly increasing inflation rate and the devaluation of the naira, and improve on the research’s methodology.

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.

Odunayo Eweniyi (Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer, PiggyVest) speaking to the media at The PiggyVest Finance Roundtable which was held on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.

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.