Cowrywise, a Nigerian-based fintech company has received a fund/portfolio management license from Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This will enable it to operate as a full-fledged portfolio management company.
This fund/portfolio management license from SEC will enable the company to achieve its goal of onboarding 10 million retail investors to the formal investment management industry by 2025.
This license is different from the one earlier received by Chaka. Even though the company was not affected by the ban earlier placed on investment platforms, it has taken steps to work in line with regulatory compliance to offer more access to investment for its growing users.
Launched in 2017, Cowrywise is building a savings and investment culture among the growing population of underserved African middle class and millennials. The company has a young user demographic with about 300,000 registered users who are actively investing and learning about investment for the first time.
Cowrywise has partnered with a growing number of fund managers and onboarded 21 different mutual funds on its platform. The company is digitizing the investment management industry and creating easy access to investment products for first-time investors.
What they are saying
Emomotimi Agama, Head, Registration, Exchanges, Market Infrastructure and Innovation at the SEC said, “We are excited to issue the first license in the fund/portfolio management category to a fintech player in Nigeria, Cowrywise. This is a demonstration of our resolve to support technology innovation in the development of the Nigerian capital market while making investor protection a priority.”
What you should know
Apart from offering investment products, Cowrywise also functions as a savings platform. Users can save through the different savings plans offered by the company and earn interest.
Earlier this year, the Ycombinator alum closed a $3 million pre-Series A round led by Quona Capital. It stated that it will continue to forge more partnerships with other fund managers to fully digitize the asset management infrastructure and deepen the Nigerian capital market for the next generation of retail investors.
