The West African Fintech Now With A Product For Kids Too

Words and Curation: Oluwatomisin Amokeoja
Additional Reporting: Chanel Retief and Nicole Pillay
Art Director: Manelisi Dabata
Photography: Kelechi Amadi-Obi
Photography Assistants: Chukwudi Ademu, Vincent Okoro, Kingsley Ugwukozor, Musa Alabi, Jesutofunmi Amokeoja, Anthony Ibuzo
Stylist: Isaac Isiadinso (Kookavelli) Stylist’s Assistant: Timilehin Oshinbanjo
Outfits: VREEMD, RAEY, Soft aiv couture and Berluti
Makeup & Hair: Oluwatoyin Eko
Studio: 12 Temple, Lagos, Nigeria

“You can’t help someone financially if you don’t understand them. Data is the foundation of every decision we make.” 

At the photoshoot for this feature, Somto Ifezue, the Co-Founder and CEO of PiggyVest, steps forward in a sharp crimson-like suit, a bold departure from his usual black uniform. His signature dreadlocks sway slightly as he speaks with the crew and his counterparts–enthusiastic and invested. 

“When we started in 2016, we were probably the first consumer fintech company in this part of Africa,” he says. “We realized early that people weren’t saving and needed to address that.” 

PiggyVest’s story of origin is now a well-worn narrative in West Africa’s fintech community. What began as a simple savings and investment automation tool has since grown into a platform serving over five million users.  

At a time when trust in traditional financial institutions was at a low, PiggyVest introduced a new kind of discipline, appealing especially to young, mobile-first users who had never owned a fixed deposit account. 

“The big problem was exclusion,” Ifezue says. “Without savings, you can’t access credit. You can’t plan. We wanted to fix that first.”  

And they did—by designing a product as easy to use as Instagram, powered by behavioral prompts and strict withdrawal penalties. Suddenly, saving became easy and cool. 

But now, in this ninth year of operations, PiggyVest is evolving again. The next frontier, Ifezue explains, is embedding finance into the everyday rhythms of African life—not just for the digitally-savvy, but for a wider demographic.  

“We now have parents saving with us, and they’ve asked: ‘can we do this for our kids too’?” he says. “So, we’re launching PiggyVest Kids. Another one we’re piloting is called Salary Manager—it helps salaried workers budget in real time, taking their whole financial ecosystem into account.” 

His voice becomes more animated when he speaks about what the team is doing with artificial intelligence.  

“We already know what you’re saving for—school, rent, a business, so, we built an AI layer that analyzes all that data and then connects it with your bank accounts. From that, we can tell you how much to save daily, weekly, and monthly.” 

It’s part of a broader shift from offering basic savings tools to becoming what Ifezue calls “a financial operating system”—a kind of intelligent planner that doesn’t just store your money, but helps you understand it. 

PiggyVest has also begun laying the groundwork for cross-border expansion, testing how different African markets interact with financial products.  

“Some places still rely on SMS,” he notes. “Some are app-first. It’s all about understanding how people use money in their context. We’re moving slow, but intentionally.” 

Even with the optimism in tech, Ifezue still sees data—not code—as the company’s most valuable asset.  

“You can’t help someone financially if you don’t understand them,” he says. “Data is the foundation of every decision we make.”