PennyTree launches new financial app in Africa

By Sunday Ani
Nigerian fintech startup, PennyTree, has launched a new financial application, Penn Rules, in Africa to make financial discipline seamless and fun.
A statement by PennyTree’s co-founder and president, Ayo Ogunlowo said the new app allows users to integrate savings habits with their lifestyle, thereby demonstrating that lifestyle and finance are not mutually exclusive.
He added that with Penn Rules, users would be able to save as they earn, spend, live and interact in the digital village without second guessing.
“Though now largely digitized, savings as a product is predominantly monotonous with so many obligations involved in maintaining a savings culture. However, for PennyTree, the next level is gamifying the already democratizing traditional way of doing things, and that’s why PennyTree is embedding savings into lifestyle with this trailblazing innovation.
“The gamified digital lifestyle platform brings ease to everything finance by building an ecosystem that integrates financial well-being with the lifestyle of its users. The idea to build a gamified digital financial lifestyle product was born out of the zeal shared by two friends, Ayo Ogunlowo and Adeleke Awotayo Ayeni, to not just democratize but also gamify the way people save by making it a part of their lifestyle,” he stated.
He further said: “We are currently at a level where savings and wealth building are characterised by setting debit reminders and locking funds away in digital vaults. We are making this more fun and enjoyable by building an affinitive ecosystem and creating a clan of financially savvy customers who would automate wealth as they live their lives.”
The application, according to him, is now available on the iOS/Playstore for download, even as PennyTree launches in a controlled format to ensure that early adopters experience the gamified digital lifestyle platform in its early stage, giving feedback while continuously improving. “This is in a bid to ensure we understand our customers, implement feedback, roll out new features and scale our architecture to accommodate a bigger customer base,” Ayo added.
On security of funds and cyber attacks, he noted that the company was in partnership with reliable and trusted platforms such as flutter wave, verify me and Africa’s talking, to leverage their technology. “We have partnered with PCIDSS level 1 compliant payment processors for security of funds and all our business partners are regulated in their respective industries. We also have a strategic partnership which avails us a microfinance bank license as a savings and collections company,” he stated.