‘Four in every 10 Nigerians are in debt’

Nigerian online savings and investment platform, Piggyvest, has said that four in every 10 Nigerians are in debt, and that 26 per cent of the number owe loan apps.

It also stated that young Nigerians spend more money on rent yearly, and expressed the need to reduce the financial burdens and encourage monthly payment of rent.
The Co-founder/Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Piggytech, Joshua Chibueze, revealed this during the maiden Piggyvest Finance Roundtable, organised to discuss the Nigerian FinTech ecosystem landscape.

Last year, Piggyvest carried out a survey on thousands of Nigerians on 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.

The roundtable was convened 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.

According to Ekiti State Commissioner of Finance, Akintunde Oyebode, who wrote the foreword to the report, the report contains 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.

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

Chibueze, said: “This is a first of its kind event for us. We started operation in 2016 and we decided to carry out an experiment in 2023 which gives us insight into how people are spending money, how they save, how they earn and how they manage unforeseen expenses, and the research tie into our mission which, is to help people to manage and grow their finances.

“So far, we have almost 300,000 people which view the report and it has been downloaded almost 15,000 times. We are hoping to continue to do this every year, and take the research beyond Lagos.

This event is an avenue for us to discuss this insight with industry stakeholders and to also hear their views. We are all solving the same problem which is financial inclusion for everyone. We want to improve the stats, help people make and save more money.

“With the research, we understand that the biggest personal expense for young people today is their rent and a lot of people spend money on food. In coming month, we will do more in helping users with our new product called House Money. This is a customized wallet to allow people save towards their rent so, with the research, we were able to see what people are doing, where then opportunities are and help people save for their rent. We want to go into housing, help our customers pay for rent monthly as oppose to yearly.

“People cannot pay for their yearly house rent at once, they have to borrow, go into financial debt so, we think helping them pay monthly is part of solutions that needs to be introduced to the market.

Speaking on the Nigeria saving and spending attitude, he said: “Before 2016, saving was almost none existence amongst young Nigerians; the bank did not encourage savings, it encourages spending so, what we did was to create consciousness to save. Now, an average young person today knows about an apps they can use to save money, even banks are now creating that consciousness for saving plans.

Chief Commercial Officer, Flutterwave, Ife Orioke: “The report is extremely insightful and I look forward to future editions.