A lot of people have the desire to save but doing that in traditional banks makes those funds easily accessible and defeats the purpose.

With cashbox, these people can automate the savings process(es) and watch their money grow towards set targets.

In this interview, Sydney Aigbogun, CEO at Cashbox, explains how, in the last five years, CashBox helped 500,000 users save over N50 billion. It is CashBox’s fifth anniversary!

Congratulations to CashBox on your fifth anniversary. What have been the lessons learnt building Cashbox these five years?

One of the most important lessons we have learnt is to try as much as possible to keep everything in-house especially the marketing and tech aspect. Outsourcing to a third party can be very expensive and not as effective as in-house would be. We have also learnt that when investing, doing proper due diligence is very important. No matter how good an investment looks, it is extremely important to dig deep and be sure funds invested will be very very secure.

How many people are currently using CashBox?

Over 500,000 users currently use CashBox

What is the state of transactions on the platform? What is growth in percentage?

As regards the savings, we currently have over 200,000 successful deposit transactions monthly and grows steadily month on month. Our user base also grows every month.

What is driving adoption on the platform?

Ease of use, customer friendly app and generally a “cool” way to save money which is quite different from traditional banks. Our customers are internet savvy and use social media alot, so we try as much as possible to push marketing in a language they can easily relate with.

How has inflation and the weakening of the naira impacted your business?

A weak Naira means our cost has tremendously increased since most of our expenses are in USD. What used to cost $1- N360 now costs over N1,000. That has impacted our cost greatly, but it has also made us become more ingenious about finding ways to keep this cost low while still delivering top notch service.

Who are those saving the most on CashBox?

Few years ago, about 65% of our users were female between the ages of 22-45, but right now, our male customers have increased. As of today, our customer base is quite more diverse having close to 50% / 50% usage by both male & female, ages between 17-57. Majority of our customers reside in Lagos and quite a number are in the Southwest and Northern states as well.

What has been your marketing strategy and how are you planning for 2024?

At CashBox, we try to keep our cost and expenses to the barest minimum. What other companies will spend millions on Naira to achieve, we make sure we spend less than N500,000 to achieve the same result. We keep reminding ourselves that we haven’t raised any funds from investors, so we do not have room for trial and errors. Any error we make loses money which we do not want.

So our marketing strategy has been alot of online advertisements and smart offline adverts that will reach a lot of customers.

This smart advertisement strategy has saved us alot of money while still reaching the goal other companies would spend way more money on. In 2024, we plan to keep doing the same and look for even smarter ways to reach more potential customers.

Any expansion plans in 2024?

In 2024, we plan to reach more users in other states of Nigeria. We are already quite popular in Lagos state, so we feel it is time we spread the word of CashBox to many more states. This we plan on doing using smart strategies and having the right people on our team.

What is your ambition for the next five years?

These last five years has been amazing, we have done alot more than we thought. We have helped over 500,000 users save over N50 billion they would ordinarily spent. In the month of December 2023, we paid out over N4 billion in withdrawals to our customers in that single month.

So, the next five years is very promising, we are a company that keeps researching and making quick changes with time.

We never want to be an obsolete app or company, so we will keep doing what we are doing and employ smarter ways to do it.

Five years from now, we should have at least 5million customers using CashBox, that is the goal, and we believe it is very achievable considering where we are coming from.

The new feature was launched weekend at the Upbeat Center, Admiralty Way, Lekki, Lagos, in commemoration of the Children’s Day celebration. Kids and their parents were there to grace the event. 

According to Sydney Aigbogun, CEO at Cashbox, the new feature on the app was made for kids to introduce them to financial responsibility. 

“We taught about a way to launch the app and celebrate cashbox kids, hence a free event for kids a day after children’s day celebration.”

He said the event helped Cashbox as a company interact with parents while receiving a lot of positive feedback about Kidsbox. 

“Most of the parents even opened accounts for their kids on the spot, including people that weren’t aware of cashbox before.”

Cashbox will also be in partnership with other critical stakeholders to ensure that more kids are exposed to saving culture. 

“We are planning to partner with different schools across the country by introducing this new feature to students and their parents.”

Benefits of KidsBox

Exposing kids to saving isn’t just a basic money habit. Saving teaches discipline and delayed gratification. Saving teaches goal-setting and planning. 

According to Aigbogun, the aim is to become the number one saving platform in Nigeria for kids and teenagers.

Although parents are the ones handling the account, KidBox is still actually for kids.

“Parents can start saving for their 12-year-old kids, maybe N1000 weakly from he/she regular allowance, and when the child is of age the child can then continue the savings account by themselves, the saving culture has already been incorporated.”

Aigbogun said the KidsBox in a way helps parents to comfortably compartmentalize what savings are for themselves and the ones for their kids.

According to him, saving for kids is essential because their needs constantly change, from fees and vacations to healthcare, and having cash somewhere either saved towards a particular expense or for whatever purpose, makes parents prepared adequately. 

How KidsBox Works

It’s just a section of the Cashbox application that can be downloaded from the Apple Store or Google Playstore. 

After downloading and installing the app, you can choose a savings plan that works for you and your goals and start saving either manually through bank transfers or automated savings when you add your debit card. Teenagers with access to bank accounts or debit cards can also sign up.

Aigbogun said the least amount that can be saved is 100 naira, and the least period for a kids’ target savings plan is 4 months. 

“For the kids’ flex, you can withdraw once in 3 months and you can run your plan for as long as you want.”

What to Know about Cashbox

CashBox is a digital savings platform owned by CashBox Global Services Limited. Cashbox focuses on making savings a habit. 

A lot of people have the desire to save but doing that in traditional banks makes those funds easily accessible and defeats the purpose. 

With cashbox, you can automate your savings and watch your money grow towards your goal.

The number of users also rose from 10,000 to 200,000 within the same period, an indication of the growing adoption of digital savings in Nigeria.

Founded in 2019, CashBox helps users cultivate a savings culture, with specific targets and incentives attached to it.

A savings plan on CashBox can earn a user as much as 6 to 13 percent interest per annum depending on the set tenor and the amount of savings they have in the wallet. Users can save as low as N100.

Sydney Aigbogun, founder and CEO of the company said the savings are invested in viable assets such as lending platforms, agriculture which is done directly with farmers to mitigate third party risks, and real estate where it partners with developers. A saver is allowed to withdraw the funds at maturity and may choose to reinvest.

CashBox is looking to add more features. Following a recent upgrade of its mobile application from 3.0 to 5.0, the company introduced an investment feature on the platform which enables users to take advantage of opportunities in different sectors of the economy. Some of the investments deliver interest rates between 6 to 7 percent which the company shares with the users sometimes at a 17 percent interest rate.

Aigbogun said CashBox has bootstrapped since it was founded but may be going to the market soon to raise new funds as it looks to recruit more technical talents and push its brand visibility across the country.

“Our digital marketing budget is very small compared to our competitors and that is because we have relied mostly on referrals to build the business,” Aigbogun said. However, the company continues to keep in touch with potential investors as it plans its fundraising.

In the long term, CashBox is pushing for a larger share of the wealth management market and wants to diversify its offering targeting Nigerians living in the diaspora.