For savings and investments in Nigeria, PiggyVest and Cowrywise are two frontrunners leading the market. This post compares both platforms using major parameters like features, interest rates, and withdrawal processes. This should serve as a premise to make educated choices on which platform to save and make investments with. Read on.
1. Features
Cowrywise
Life Goals: On Cowrywise, there is a list of life goals that you can automatically create saving around. These goals are usually long-term — Home, Vacation, Family, Emergency, Education, Business, Retirement, etc. Savings Plans: There are savings plans on Cowrywise which lets users create a plan for whatever they want to save for. Users can then set these plans to be automated (that is, they get to automatically save daily, weekly or monthly) or manual. Mutual Funds: With Cowrywise, you can invest in Nigeria’s money market via Mutual funds. The platforms list funds like Afrivest Plutus Fund, United Capital Money Market Fund, Meristem Money Market Fund and more on its list of funds. Stash: Cowrywise Stash gives you a unique account number and allows you to do a number of things — direct transfers to investment plans from your bank, make transfers to other Cowrywise users, make bank transfers for as low as NGN25. Basically, it’s like your bank account, but for Cowrywise. Dollar Investments: On Cowrywise, you can access Dollar mutual funds. More specifically, the United Capital Nigerian Eurobond Fund. It is a Dollar-based investment option but Cowrywise lets users invest in this fund with the Nigerian naira. Cowrywise Circles: This feature allows Cowrywise users to save as a group. Cowrywise Circles are split into two – Collections and Challenges. Collections are great for projects. Everyone saves in the group but only the admin can make withdrawals. On the other hand, Challenges are for motivating people to save in a group. Everyone has access and can withdraw their funds upon maturity.
Piggyvest
Piggybank Autosave/Quicksave: This lets you set up automated savings so you don’t have to login every time you want to save. The “Quicksave” option allows you to top up your savings manually. Safelock: Think of this as your fixed deposit account in a traditional bank, but better. SafeLock is a fixed savings option that allows you to earn up to 15.5% per annum, usually paid up front. You can transfer funds from your Piggybank wallet or debit card to Safelock. Investify: Investify is a PiggyVest feature that lets users earn more on their savings by investing in insured, pre-vetted, low-medium risk, primary and secondary investment opportunities. The platform has previously partnered with third-party investment platforms like Thrive Agric, MAX.ng. Flex Naira: Flex Naira on PiggyVest is a flexible savings wallet where interests earned on all other PiggyVest wallets are paid. So, all interests from your other savings are paid into your Flex Naira account. You earn an interest of 10% per annum on funds in your flex account. Target Savings: With Target Savings, users are able to save consistently towards a particular financial goal. It allows for both single and multiple users as you can create a personal target or a group savings challenge respectively. Flex Dollar: This feature allows you to save, invest and transfer funds in dollars. You can also get up to a 7% annual interest on your Flex Dollar account.
Interest Rates
Piggyvest
Piggyvest offers between 10% – 15.5% on savings. Investments on Investify can get up to 22% returns in 12 months. The most recent invested listed 18% returns in 9 months.
Cowrywise
Cowrywise also offers between 10% – 15% on savings. Mutual funds on Cowrywise can get up to 20% per annum.
Withdrawals
Cowrywise: On this platform, users can set maturity dates which are usually a minimum of three (3) months. Users cannot withdraw from the Cowrywise platform until the maturity date is reached. For mutual funds, however, users can sell their units to get their cash back. This cash can be transferred to Cowrywise Stash and then, to a user’s bank account. Piggyvest: Withdrawing funds from PiggyVest is free but only if it is done on these default fixed dates: 31st March, 30th June, 30th September, and 31st December. Withdrawing funds outside these dates attract a 5% penalty fee. Although users can set their own custom withdrawal date.
Your verdict?
Putting into consideration the varied features, we expect that users can make educated choices on which platform to save with. Tell us, what platform do you (plan to) save and invest with?
