The impact story of Nigeria’s biggest investment club, The Green Investment Club

The Green investment club was established in the wake of the economic recession in 2016 in Nigeria. At the time, the members were focused on getting financially educated in a community and gradually building investment in impact-driven investment opportunities. The current uncertain economic situation seems to be opening up a lot more investment opportunities for the members of the biggest investment club in Nigeria.

In the words of the founder, Tomie Balogun, ‘’I co-founded an investment club with four friends and this led me on an investment journey filled with lessons. Three years into operating our private investment club, we started to receive requests to join our investment club. We were not so keen on accepting new members. That’s why I decided to build a framework to teach how to start an investment club. To deepen my understanding more, I decided to implement the 3 models of investment clubs I developed. The green investment club is an example of a community model and we launched it as an experiment to see if anyone will be interested’’

Today, that experiment boasts of 1,100 members who have invested over N2bn ($5m) in multiple small businesses in Nigeria. The direct impact of investing in small and medium enterprises in sectors such as agriculture and micro-credit lending has contributed to economic growth and created jobs for over 2,000 people in Nigeria.

According to the founder, Tomie Balogun, ‘’The investment club’s focus was to teach young millennials like herself how to invest confidently. I had no clue how to invest confidently when I started so I made a lot of mistakes on my journey.’’

Things changed when she started an investment club and started to read books and seek out experts to learn practical investment tips from. This boosted her confidence in making investment decisions over time.

Her investment journey mirrors the challenges many young people face today in Nigeria. Most millennials who earn good income do not understand how to invest confidently. Their short-time financial needs make them drop long term goals. As a result, they end up spending all they earn or investing in bad investment schemes which promise money doubling returns.

Through the investment club’s financial literacy courses, resources, and curated investment opportunities, they help their members achieve sustainable income growth through investments at a rate higher than the average. Members of the Green Investment Club earn an additional stream of income from investing in credible investment opportunities. Being impact-driven as a community, they invest actively in small and medium businesses in key sectors of the economy in a bid to increase employment and encourage economic growth.

The investment club is also focused on reducing the inequality in the investment sector as more women are inspired to invest. 65% of the members of the Green Investment Club are women. It is confidence-boosting for women to be in a group with other women who are working towards financial independence. They get a clear picture of their finances and make better financial decisions

The Green Investment club has a thriving community of professionals and entrepreneurs who are mostly Nigerian but live in different countries. The community communicates strictly via email and a support group. To protect the privacy of its members, they do not have WhatsApp or Telegram groups. So if you see a WhatsApp or Telegram group in the name of the Green Investment Club or Tomie Balogun, it is a scam and they encourage everyone to report the group immediately.

As an investment club and community, the members of the Green Investment club are all connected by one goal; to get better with their personal finances and make an impact by investing in small businesses contributing to economic growth in Nigeria.