Nigerian leading online savings platform, Cashbox, has helped its customers save more than $2.5 million, Chief Executive Officer of the company, Sydney Imuetinyan Aigbogun has said.
Established in January 2019, CashBox guarantees interest on savings without additional charges with the aid of mobile interface.
“Uptake has been impressive. In the startup’s first year, it saw 17,000 users save around US$350,000, but that has skyrocketed in 2020.
“In the first seven months of our second year in operation, we had over 100,000 users who have saved over US$2.5 million,” Sydney Imuetinyan Aigbogun said.
To start using Cashbox, all a user has to do is download its mobile app, register a profile, and choose how much they want to save and at what intervals. On the set saving day, the app automatically debits their account and saves it in their Cashbox account. There is also the option for bank transfers which can be done seamlessly.
Explaining reasons for starting CashBox, Aigbogun said: “The average individual wants to save but wants to do that easily, safely and without having to go through the hassle of unnecessary maintenance fees and charges, and also by using a system they can trust,” he said.
The options available were limited, however, with risk of having little technology involved difficult to gloss over. This means people were losing money with little dividends as it were.
“This to a large extent affected the saving habit of people since they would rather spend their money rather than save it in a system they didn’t trust.
“We decided to find a way to get this savings product to almost anybody that has a mobile phone and wants to save money. With the help of technology, we have been able to build CashBox and make it extremely secure,” Sydney Imuetinyan Aigbogun.
He spoke of the astronomical growth of his company thus: “Our savings grow by up to 40 per cent every month, which is quite encouraging even though we still always want to do more. We revamped our app in June this year and added new features such as allowing users the option to pick the pidgin language as their preferred option when they are using our app. We also have a transfer option which allows users to transfer from their Cashbox account to either another one of their plans or to other Cashbox users.”
Not enjoying any form of partnership at the moment, Cashbox is looking to secure investment in the near future to continue developing its product, having until now been learning about the market and building a huge customer base.
Despite the impressive strides it has recorded In the early days, Sydney Imuetinyan Aigbogun said, the startup had been worried about gaining acceptance.
“Like every startup, we weren’t sure if people would welcome the idea and trust us enough to save their money with us. But within the first week, we already had about 500 registered savers. We found out that many people actually want to save and they just needed a little push, and a platform they could use easily and trust,” recalled Sydney. Imuetinyan Aigbogun
A significant number of Cashbox users are millennials, dwelling in major cities across Nigeria like Lagos, Abuja, Enugu and Port Harcourt.
“However, our long-term expansion plan is that we want CashBox to be accessible to all and sundry, so we are planning to roll out our services to other cities across Nigeria and neighbouring African countries, and also provide financial services to the unbanked.
“The ultimate plan is to grow into an asset management company with a possible investment portfolio in areas like agriculture and real estate. We also have plans to introduce foreign exchange savings and other investment options for our users,” Sydney Imuetinyan Aigbogun added
