Rise of fintech is creating platforms and enabling environments across Africa at large, a captivating innovation in Nigeria recently is the increasing opportunity fintech has established for Nigerians to invest in US stock. This is somewhat unsurprising given how global payments giants have fueled interest by investing millions of dollars across the world stock market. In addition, aside normal transaction in banks and digital banking generally, fintech has established a systematic means of investing internationally i.e. “Wealthtech” or wealth management startups offering investment opportunities to willing users in Nigeria. More specifically, some of these platforms focus primarily on helping a generation of young Nigerians invest in foreign stocks and assets easier than ever before.
“Rise” for instance is a startup established by a Nigerian informally as an investment club among friends, Eleanya Eke chose to formalize operations as a fund management company given the scale of interest. The club of Nigerian professionals had teamed together to buy and flip or rent residential property in the United States but as the group grew demand rapidly evolved. “We first started with US real estate but a lot more people were interested in US stocks. All of that informed our move as there’s a really strong demand for it especially among the internet connected crowd.” Now in a better phase, Eke says Rise already has over 1,000 users.
Recently, Nigeria has witnessed her youths making necessary moves to get involved in foreign activities same way their financial investment is tilting towards foreign stocks i.e. wealthtech. The growing use of wealthtech platforms also signal a wider shift in investment culture among younger Nigerians who are increasingly looking beyond traditional models of saving.
While wealthtech platforms market themselves as available to all comers, their user base is mainly dominated by young professionals who are more tech savvy and trusting of the internet. Locally, wealth management apps like PiggyBank and Cowrywise which allow users automate savings in Naira have also become popular by also offering savings and investment options with interest rates much higher than what traditional banks offer. These innovations all together are making it very easy to invest and transact internationally, rise of fintech establishments is enabling Nigerians invest in foreign stocks.
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