Awabah, a digital pension aggregator has partnered with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to commission over 200 agents to spread micro pension at the grassroot level at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce Conference Center.
The event, which saw agents living in various parts of Lagos trained on the benefits and dynamics of micro pension, represents the first of many collaborations as the fintech startup plans to enrol 150,000 new users by next year.
Awabah’s referral system rewards users of the platform when they refer new enrollees, agents commission will depend largely on the number of customers each agent successfully registers.
What they are saying
Speaking during the event, Tunji Andrews, the chief executive officer of Awabah explained that the digital platform is helping to improve financial inclusion especially for people who do not have access to pension.
“The government has realized that a lots of people in Nigeria will be exposed to later stages in their lives where they do not have savings, so the government through Pencom created the micro pension; a pension for the self-employed.
“Think about it like the long term Esusu/Ajo. The difference is the local Ajo requires that you save for a particular time and then collect your money but micro pension is slightly different. In Micro pension, only 40% can be withdrawn before you get to the retirement age.”
Emphasizing the need for a solution using the people, he stated that the company believes that the best way to get the grassroots involved in retirement planning is to get community members to onboard their communities.
“Awabah believes in building wealth together. This means we want to onboard the community by using the community. Because the best way to get to any community is to get into the community using people inside the community”
Also speaking during the event, Erics-Sobukonla Oluwafunmilayo, Business Support Officer LSETF Urged agents to seize the opportunity and leverage on it for wealth making.
What you should know about Awabah
Awabah was launched in November 2020 and looks to register members of Nigeria’s informal workforce who otherwise would not have had access to structured retirement savings into the micro pension scheme by partnering with Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).
So far, Awabah has established operations in Lagos and Ibadan and has registered over 5000 users in the scheme.
The startup in July raised $200,000 in angel funding in angel funding which it has followed up by banking another US$120,000 after joining the Techstars London accelerator programme.
