Cowrywise vs Piggyvest - Which is Best for Your Savings and Investments?
About PiggyVest and Cowrywise
Savings is an essential aspect of anyone’s life, especially if you are earning income regularly. It is crucial also to invest your savings wisely so you can make more value on your money.
PiggyVest is the first online “Savings and Investment” application that was developed in West Africa. It was first launched as “Piggybank.ng” on the 7th of January 2016 as a savings-only platform but later rebranded as Piggyvest While Cowrywise is a financial technology company from Lagos, Nigeria focused on democratizing access to wealth management and high-end investments to young Africans.
Cowrywise and Piggyvest are the most popular savings and investment apps in Nigeria, and in this post, we will be looking at Piggyvest vs Cowrywise or Cowrywise vs Piggyvest – whichever way you wish to put it. Lol. We will be discussing the features of both to help you make informed decisions about them.
Cowrywise vs PiggyVest in Terms of Savings
Cowrywise is one of the savings and investment companies in Nigeria that seeks to make savings and investment simpler and highly rewarding to do.
They launched in 2017 offering premium financial services to the mass market. With as little as N100, Cowrywise allows you to start saving and investing in the periodic plans. They have also made available four different features that cater to everyone’s financial goals.
Cowrywise Savings Features
The first is the Regular Savings which helps you save for a minimum of three months with an interest rate of 10%-15% per annum. The second is the Life Goals which enables you to save towards a goal such as tuition, for a minimum of one year. The third is Halal Savings which is for Muslims who do not want interest rates on their savings. The fourth is the Savings Circle which encourages people to have group targets and save towards them.
Piggyvest Savings Features
Piggyvest, on the other hand, is primarily an online savings platform that enables people to achieve financial independence by saving and investing.
It allows you to save little amounts of money (either daily, weekly, or monthly) towards a particular target or lock your funds away for a specified amount of time. There are several distinct features on the Piggyvest application that makes savings and investment to be an easy and enjoyable thing.
The first of them is Piggybank which is the core savings aspect on Piggyvest, and it pays you 10% of your per annum. The second is Safelock which allows you to put aside money for a specified period and you cannot access the funds until the time has expired. The third feature is Targets which helps you save towards a particular goal such as house rent. The fourth is Flex Naira which is a flexible savings wallet that keeps the interest from all other features.
The fifth feature is which allows you to convert your savings to dollars. Market conditions determine the interest rates on this feature.
Cowrywise vs PiggyVest in The areas of Withdrawals, interest rates, and Investments
Withdrawals
Piggyvest has a more flexible withdrawal system that allows you to manually set your withdrawal dates or use the Piggyvest official dates which are March 31st, June 30th, September 30th, and December 31st. It attracts a 5% penalty fee if you withdraw outside the set dates. Cowrywise is stricter on withdrawals and is better for financial discipline as you will not access the funds till the time you set is up.
Interest Rates
Piggyvest interest rate is between 10%-15.5%, and interests on Investify can be up to 22% per annum. Cowrywise offers 10%-15% on savings, and mutual funds can get up to 20% per annum.
Investments
For investments, Piggyvest has a feature called Investify, which allows you to earn more on your savings by investing in primary and secondary opportunities. With N5000, you can invest in low-risk investments usually in the Agriculture, Transportation, and Real Estate sector.
Cowrywise has Mutual Funds which is a part of the savings circle feature that allows you to invest in mutual funds with money as low as N100.
Investment and Savings: Piggyvest vs Cowrywise
Piggyvest and Cowrywise perform almost the same in the area of functions and they at the front page of the savings and investment applications in Nigeria. Both of them offer users savings and investment features, but one of them is better suited for savings and the other one for investment.
Piggyvest is better for users who are more interested in saving because primarily, it is seen as a savings application. Also, its flexible withdrawal system makes it very easy to access your savings in case of emergencies.
Cowrywise, on the other hand, is better for investments because of its mutual fund’s features and the vast array of investment opportunities available on the platform. You can check out this post on other ways to invest in mutual funds in Nigeria.
