The third edition of Piggyvest’s annual Finance Roundtable brought together finance leaders, founders, analysts, policymakers, and creators to dig into the findings of the Piggyvest Savings Report 2025 and what they mean for everyday Nigerians.
What the Piggyvest Finance Roundtable Is All About
Every year, Piggyvest releases the Savings Report, an expansive, data-driven study of how Nigerians actually earn, spend, save, and plan. But data sitting in a PDF doesn’t change anything on its own. And the conversations are the first step in that direction. That’s where the Piggyvest Finance Roundtable comes in.
The Piggyvest Finance Roundtable is Piggyvest’s annual gathering of stakeholders from tech, finance, and policy to examine the report’s findings, challenge existing assumptions, and ask the simple question: Where do we go from here?
The first edition, in February 2024, brought together fintech ecosystem leaders to discuss the inaugural Piggyvest 2023 Savings Report and put a spotlight on Nigeria’s financial literacy gap. The second, in February 2025, discussed the Piggyvest 2024 Savings Report and delved deeper into entrepreneurship, gender-based financial disparities, and the generational divide in Nigerians’ relationship with money. Each year, the roundtable has gotten bigger, the data more robust, and the conversations more urgent.
On Thursday, March 26, 2026, the third edition brought together some leaders in Nigeria’s finance and tech ecosystem — including Adeyemi Adegun (Associate Director, Tax Services, EY), Douglas Kendyson (Co-founder, Selar), Adedayo Ojo (Associate Consultant, Research and Data, TC Insights), Ibiyinka Ibru (Lead Financial Advisor, MoneyStart), Chidozie Ezemenyiba (Project Coordinator, Lagos CARES – LSETF), Nchedolisa Akuma (Senior Investment Professional, V8 Capital Partners), Folashade Adeyeye (Business Development Partner, Paystack), Boluwatife Ishola (Research Analyst, ChapelHill Denham), and Oreoluwa Oyinlola (Lead, PV Capital), alongside the Piggyvest team, at Victoria Island, Lagos.
6%; The Number That Set the Tone
The Piggyvest Savings Report 2025 is our most ambitious edition yet. This year, 90 data collectors were deployed across all six geopolitical zones to speak with over 26,000 Nigerians — of different ages, genders, and income brackets — about their income, saving and spending habits, debt, and financial plans. It’s the closest thing Nigeria has to a nationally representative consumer financial health survey at this scale and frequency.
Presenting the report’s findings, Boluwatife Akindele, Team Lead, Content Strategy at Piggyvest, opened with a number that hung over the rest of the day: only 6% of Nigerians say they feel financially secure and content.
“Here’s what makes it more interesting,” Akindele told the crowd. “The largest share of people who feel that way are not in the highest income bands. They’re in the lower and middle bands. Which means this isn’t simply a money problem.”
He challenged the room to treat the data as a responsibility rather than just information. “If this number is going to move, from 6% to something meaningfully higher, it won’t be because Nigerians suddenly become better with money. It will be because we’ve built systems and tools and products that make stability possible.”
Odunayo Eweniyi, Co-founder and COO of Piggyvest, further broke down some of the report’s findings:
- Nearly three in five Nigerians report either having no monthly income or earning below ₦100,000.
- The share of Nigerians saving monthly has dropped from 64% in 2023 to 40% in 2025.
- Six in ten Nigerians have no funds set aside for emergencies. Simply put, they have no buffer for a hospital bill, sudden job loss, or an unexpected expense.
The room was quiet after those numbers. And then the conversations started.
“A Good Time for Businesses to Invest”
In a panel examining the CBN’s 2026 Macroeconomic Outlook for Nigeria, moderated by Divine Izeg-Idevbure, Treasury and Investments Associate at Piggyvest, panellists Boluwatife Ishola (ChapelHill Denham) and Oreoluwa Oyinlola (PV Capital) unpacked what the current macroeconomic environment actually means for SMEs and everyday investors.
According to the panellists, the backdrop is cautiously hopeful. Inflation is slowing, the exchange rate has stabilised somewhat, foreign investor confidence is growing, and the ongoing bank recapitalisation exercise could reshape access to credit. But Oyinlola and Ishola were honest about what could still go wrong: political uncertainty, shifting US trade policy, and the open question of whether Nigeria’s current trajectory is genuine structural progress or just a breather.
When Izeg-Idevbure pressed for what all of this means in practice, Oyinlola didn’t hedge. “The rate of price increases has slowed significantly. We’re still an import-dependent economy, but the stability we’re seeing, particularly around the exchange rate, is helping businesses and consumers breathe a little.”
She went further: “This is a good time for businesses to invest. I don’t think we should sit on the sidelines and say, ‘let’s wait and see.’ We’ve done that too many times. Apply the necessary discretion, price your risk properly, but take advantage of the stable environment we’re seeing.”
The panel also explored what bank recapitalisation could mean for the average Nigerian, with panellists noting that better-capitalised banks could extend more credit to small businesses and deepen collaboration between banks and fintechs on financial access.
Other Conversations That Mattered
Beyond the macroeconomic panel, the roundtable also featured discussions spanning policy, personal finance, and the practical realities of building in Nigeria’s current economy.
- Public-Private Partnerships for Economic Growth:
Chidozie Ezemenyiba, Project Coordinator of Lagos CARES (anchored by the LSETF), outlined how private-sector companies can partner with the fund to support Nigerian businesses and individuals. Established in 2016 to tackle unemployment and promote entrepreneurship, the LSETF supports MSMEs through access to finance — including loans and grants — employability training, innovation support through workspace vouchers and hub loans, and business and project support.
- The Nigeria Tax Act, 2025
In an open discussion moderated by Seunfunmi Okuntola, Fraud and Investigation Analyst at Piggyvest, panellists dug into the tax reform’s implications for businesses and consumers. Okuntola posed a question that clearly resonated with the room: “How do private companies educate customers about new tax obligations without appearing to side with the government?”
Oluchukwu Chiadiaka, Personal Finance Advisor and founder of Your Personal Finance Girl, had a sharp answer: “It comes down to messaging and heavy, consistent education, delivered in different tones across as many touchpoints as possible. The same information, said differently, lands differently depending on how you pass it.”
What’s Next?
Three editions in, the Piggyvest Finance Roundtable has grown from an internal discussion into an economic touch point the broader ecosystem looks forward to and leans on. The guest list is diverse, the methodology behind the Savings Report is precise, and the questions the roundtable is asking keep getting harder.
Which is exactly the point.
Joshua Chibueze, Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Piggytech, reflected on what’s ahead: “We’re just getting started. We’re about three years in, and there’s a lot of opportunity for growth. We’re looking to partner with more established firms to engage with our findings, methodology, and solutions. Many businesses and decision-makers rely on this data to make future decisions. We plan to remain consistent, and there’s going to be a lot more to come.”
Delivering the vote of thanks, Ibukun Akinola, Co-founder and Director of Payments at Piggyvest, put it simply: “We want to make sure that we capture exactly how Nigerians feel. We are happy to be a leading voice in that conversation. But it’s up to us to make sure there is at least infrastructure to take all of us to the next level of our finances.”
The full Piggyvest Savings Report 2025 is available now: Read it here.
