i-invest, Nigeria’s one-stop financial management, and wealth creation app
by: JOHN DOE
on: DECEMBER 2, 2022
in: BLOG
What can you tell us about the i-invest app?
“The i-invest app was initially created as a mobile app to access what you can call the treasury bills market. In 2018, retail investors didn’t have access to high-interest yielding products so at i-invest we felt it was an opportunity to allow Nigerians who weren’t institutional investors to gain access to the lucrative space and that was how i-invest was founded. However, since then it has morphed from an app that allows people to invest in treasury bills with about 17% interest rate to an app for everything money for the Nigerian population.
What problem(s) does the i-invest app solve in the Nigerian tech space?
“Basically, it’s solving the problem of convenience and access by providing a wealth management tool for everyday Nigerians. Apart from providing convenient access to treasury bills or fixed deposits, you can access mutual funds, dollar products, and the equity market in real-time without going through your bank or stockbroker.
So, it’s giving people access to different wealth management options/tools and allowing them to do everything financially themselves without the need for a third party.”
What opportunities can people find when they download the i-invest app?
“We have a wide variety of products on the app. There are a variety of high-yielding products, different banks put up their deposit rates whether it’s a microfinance bank or a big bank for customers to place money with them through the app. You can also buy treasury bills, local equities like MTN, Airtel, or even GTBank shares; all in real-time without going through a third party and having to fill out lots of forms. You can also purchase data, airtime, make peer-to-peer transfers, invest in Eurobonds, commercial papers, pay bills and create a savings plan. Basically, what the i-invest app allows you to do is everything that involves your financial wellbeing and welfare.”
Speaking on the return on investment and minimum investment value on the app, Olusoga explained that “different products have different returns on investment. If you go to a bank that was offering you a fixed deposit of 10%, the return is going to be 10%. So, it varies from product to product. On a savings plan, customers can save as low as ₦200 which can be done on a daily, monthly, weekly, or quarterly basis. For equities as well, the minimum investment can be as low as the value of the stock and there are no restrictions on those as they are a function of what you want to do and where the equities are trading. Where you have a difference is on the Treasury side of things where the minimum entry point is about ₦10,000.”
What makes i-invest stand out from the other financial products of the market?
“Everything we do is under the regulatory scope of the SEC. We believe we have strong and experienced professionals at our disposal and most of the other tech products are not as financially sophisticated as ours are in terms of the variants in the product mix we give to the customers, and this is a testament to the quality of people on our team who are experienced financial professionals with a technological background. Most of these people are Engineers who turned into finance experts and work hard to deliver products that serve everyday Nigerians”
How would you describe your progress since inception?
Proud of how far the company has come “I think that we’ve really surprised ourselves and grown with the market. There are a lot more players in the space which is actually a good thing for us because there’s a lot more awareness now and that has been good in terms of our personal growth as it has made us more agile and a lot more efficient,” Olusoga said.
“Secondly in terms of numbers we’ve done pretty well and I believe the future is bright. So far, we’ve had over 250,000 app downloads with over $170 million in transactions go through the app in two and a half years. I think without making much noise, the app is on an upward trajectory and I believe i-invest would be one of the apps that would be a market leader in the future,” he added.
