NewTech Friday: Nkwa – Helping French-speaking Africans to save
In Cameroon, fintech Nkwa assists its customers in reaching their financial goals through its saving app. We talk about it with Nkwa’s CFO & Co-Founder Akwo Ngwashie.
In Cameroon, fintech Nkwa assists its customers in reaching their financial goals through its saving app. We talk about it with Nkwa’s CFO & Founder Akwo Ngwashie.
Akwo, before we get started, let's do a video pitch for our very busy readers who don't have time to read. Can you introduce Nkwa in less than a minute?
What led to the creation of Nkwa?
Three years ago I had a remote job with good monthly income, but didn’t know how to save for other needs. I was embarrassed when it took eight months to repair my phone when it got bad – because I was spending all my income. I started to look for solutions to mitigate this and rediscovered the wooden piggy bank. Existing wealth management firms had a minimum monthly deposit which was for the wealthy, and digital saving solutions like Piggyvest and Cowrywise (a YC company) were focused primarily on English-speaking Africans.
I decided to digitalize the wooden piggy bank for myself, and soon my friends started using it too. We grew rapidly to 900 users, saving $20,000 via word of mouth. That’s when we noticed millennials were hungry for a solution like this and decided to pursue this full time.
Could you present Nkwa’s offer?
Nkwa simplifies savings and investments for French-speaking Africans.
Some 120 million millennials in francophone African don’t have access to saving and investment solutions. It’s cumbersome and expensive, as the focus of wealth management firms remains the top 5-10% wealthiest customers. We offer online savings plans – for deposits of small amounts on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis, or towards a life goal (marriage, vacation, education, etc.). We’re also an intermediary, enabling users to invest in mutual funds, bonds and treasury bills directly from our app.
What's coming next for Nkwa?
We are doing a fundraise, aiming to acquire 50,000 customers by launching in other towns in Cameroon, grow active savers to 60% of our customer base, and grow revenue by 375% MoM.
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