‘We need to dismantle cultural, religious barriers that limit women’s access to financial services’

Jennifer Awirigwe, popularly called Financial Jennifer, is a personal finance expert, investment banker, and founder of Nigeria’s first and largest women-only finance community, Fintribe. Recognised as “The Women Money Cheerleader,” she engages a vibrant audience of over 120,000 people daily on social media, where she shares simple and transformational personal finance insights. 
With years of experience in auditing, aviation, and treasury operations across four different industries, she currently works with a top investment bank and has expertise in fixed income, securities trading and fintech treasury operations. A Chartered Accountant, Chartered Stockbroker, and Certified Financial Education Instructor by the National Financial Educators Council, USA, she uses her platform to equip young women to secure their financial future.
With over 3,000 women saving, investing, and growing wealth together, Jennifer’s FinTribe community has become a great space for networking. She tells TOBI AWODIPE the secrets to her success, improving financial inclusiveness amongst women and doing away with finance misconceptions.

How do you define success and what have been your secrets to achieving it? 
We all have unique ways of defining and measuring success. For me, setting out to do the things I said I would do and getting a result I am at peace with is a success. Many people only rate financial success; it’s more for me.

For instance, I have a goal of seeing more women being intentional with their finances. What did I do? I started preaching it and went on to found a women-only finance community. Having women join this community and making smart money moves, this sort of impact is a big success for me. I don’t wait to get to my destination before I declare something a success. The journey itself is a win for me. Something that helps me in achieving my set goals is thinking on paper.

We underestimate the power of writing down goals. I think better when I write, and I get to list out detailed steps on making it happen. I also owe a lot to the amazing people in my life, friends, and mentors. We water and cheer one another toward our goals.

What can young people do to set them up for a secure financial future?
My clientele base is made up of young and older people. Most of the older clients who are usually proud of their investment portfolio always wished they started earlier. True, with your personal finance planning, when you wake up is your morning, but you do have a great advantage if you start earlier.

Let’s look at two investors. Assuming they invest in the stock market with an average of 10 per cent returns compounded annually. If Investor A starts investing N10, 000 monthly from age 25 and Investor B starts investing N20, 000 monthly from age 40, by the time they hit 60, investor A that started earlier will have N32, 000,000+ while Investor B will have N13, 000,000+. That’s the magic of starting early and letting compounding work for you.

So, start investing early and consistently. Invest in yourself; acquire relevant skills, knowledge and experience. While at it, remember to build your network. Build relationships all around; network upward, sideways, and downward. This will help you immensely. 

You have been at the top and have certainly been at the bottom of the personal finance heap. Can you share your own personal financial journey? And from your experiences, how can people navigate their personal finance not going as planned? 
Certainly. I used to be the broke Chartered Accountant that was doing a great job managing a company’s money as a Treasury Accountant, but my own personal finance was a mess. I was making decent money, but at the end of the year, I had nothing to show for it. The journey started with me making the conscious decision to do better.

I gave my money direction, which included moving some of it to a savings account that graduated to an investment account. I was sharing the little steps I was making on social media; that was the birth of my community because many women could relate to my journey and appreciated the way I broke down the steps I was taking, no financial jargon. 

Today, I am still on that journey, but I can look back and be grateful for how I am the boss of my money, and not the other way around. To everyone looking to do better with their money, first is the intentionality. Plan out what you wish to do with your income even before it drops. If you don’t have a plan for your money, unending bills will help you plan it. You want to avoid that.

And part of what you should put in place is insurance plans and an emergency fund. Your emergency fund is untouchable and comes to play only when there is an emergency. This way, you are able to sort out unplanned events that could be a blow to your finances.

If you could do away with one misconception about personal finance, which one would it be and why? 
It will be on investment. Many people think you need a lot of money to invest; hence, it’s only for wealthy people. No, please. True, the rich know and do something, which many people don’t do – they grow their wealth by leveraging investments.

But thinking that investing is only a cool thing for rich people is one misconception we should do away with.

There are so many investment opportunities one can key into with as little as N5, 000. There are options like Savings bonds, mutual funds, stocks and so on. All of these are things anyone can invest in with little money and grow from there. ‘I will double your money in one week, bring two people’ is not investment please.

Are there specific strategies you think Nigeria can adopt to close the financial inclusiveness gap amongst women? 
Nigeria has made progress when it comes to financial inclusion. Regardless, there is still a significant gender gap in access to financial services. According to the World Bank’s Global Findex database, only 35 per cent of women aged 15 and above have a financial account with a formal financial institution.

What happens to the remaining 65 per cent? We can bridge this gap by promoting financial literacy. Asides teaching women personal finance, we need to reach more people.

Nigeria and organisations should develop and implement programmes that educate women on financial management and the need to embrace financial services. I look forward to partnerships that can make this happen.

Again, we can leverage technology to reach more women especially those in rural communities with little or no physical banks. Thankfully, different Fintech brands are coming up; I encourage them to target women in these rural communities. Develop gender-specific financial products for women.

When I started my community, FinTribe, people asked why we serve only women. This is one of the reasons; my aim is to bridge this gap. And women feel more comfortable in communities where they can express themselves freely without thoughts of the opposite sexes. I also recommend we dismantle some cultural and religious barriers that limit women’s willingness and access to financial services

As the founder of FinTribe, what are some of landmark achievements you have recorded so far?
We are a community of women that save and invest together. Everyone has good intentions when it comes to their personal finance, but most times, we don’t follow through. But being in a community of other money-minded women who are on the same journey as you, encouraging and keeping you accountable makes the difference.

This is what we do for our community members. In fact, a prerequisite for being a member is that you have to be consistent with saving your money, at least once a month. And we see to it that everyone does this. 

We seek ways to leverage our number to the benefit of our members. We are currently planning a business trip together to China/Turkey. We coordinate bulk food buying and sharing for members; this saves a lot of cost for us. We find ways to support our businesses; our last hangout in Lagos was a content creation event where members come out to create video content for their businesses.

It was a beautiful sight, watching members helping and encouraging one another to create amazing contents for their businesses. We put knowledge first, we host monthly knowledge events to teach and discuss different finance concepts. Now, we have brands looking to partner with us in different capacities.

For me, the highest achievement is the impact. Testimonies from members on how they are being smarter financially; we have women buying properties, starting new businesses, and building robust investment portfolios. It’s a big win for me. We launched our exclusive tech platform for our savings. In our first month of launch, we have over 3,000 members on the platform saving consistently. Who said women don’t save?

You’re an accomplished Chartered Accountant with years of experience in various sectors. In your journey, how would you say the FMCG sector in Nigeria has changed since you first started out there? 
I left the FMCG industry a couple of years back for investment banking. One change that was prevalent then, and even now is product sachetisation. Products that originally come in king-size packaging now have sachet versions. And this is necessary seeing as disposable income isn’t much to go around.

I love that companies are able to meet consumers at their level. Also, more FMCG companies are embracing technology for improved performance in warehousing and logistics. 

Inflation has been a major concern and has led to repeated price hikes. Amid faltering demand, uncertainty over the elections and the naira redesign, what is the outlook for the next two-three quarters?
A lot of things are happening at the same time, but we will come out stronger. Not playing the agent of doom, but I expect inflation to maintain the uptrend due to continued pressures from higher PMS prices due to expected removal of fuel subsidy, exchange rate adjustment, expected delay in policy implementation due to a new government, and persistent insecurity affecting food production.

In light of this, I encourage people to seek credible investments with higher returns. Even if they won’t match the inflation rate, we would be better off than doing nothing. And if possible, a portion of your investment portfolio should be in dollar-denominated assets.

What are your expectations for rest of the year, what’s you plan for 2023? 
At the moment, I have over 100,000 women who read and learn from me. This year, I hope to reach more people with my personal finance message, same for FinTribe. This community is a tool for my vision.

I envision an Africa with more empowered women, who are confidently making better financial decisions and generally bridging the gender gap in the investment space. FinTribe is open to every woman that desires this. By December 2023, not less than 20,000 women will say, ‘I did the most with my money this year because of Financial Jennifer.’

March being women’s month, what is the number one financial advice you can give to a woman reading this?
Dear woman, be audacious with your financial goals. Personal finance for women is not about cooking a pot of egusi with N2,000 budget. We have women making bold money moves, but not enough women. We want you to get on board. Dare to dream bigger. Set goals that will make you laugh but it will push you to get down to work too.

Building an enviable investment portfolio, buying properties in your name, running global businesses, eliminating money-induced headaches, all are possible; it starts from you believing that you can do it, because you can. Will you?