Fintech Startup Awabah Joins Techstars London Accelerator Programme

Fintech Startup Awabah Joins Techstars London Accelerator Programme

Awabah, a financial institution enabling Micro Pension Scheme for Africa’s self-employed, recently disclosed that it has been accepted into the Techstars London accelerator programme.

Awabah is a digital startup dedicated to making micro-pension services available to those in the informal sector and those whose employers are not legally required to deduct and remit pension. The fintech will join nine other startups in the class of 2021 and secure funding from the accelerator as it prepares to expand its services to other African countries.

The Lagos-based company, founded by Tunji Andrews, Tina Ajishebiyawo and Gboyega Olatunde is building financial security for Africa’s informal, particularly self-employed population by ensuring that they securely plan for their retirement. After launching in November 2020, Awabah rapidly signed over 700 clients in its first two months.

Awabah raised $200,000 in angel backing from early-stage investors like ODBA and Co Ventures, and Correlation Capital in July 2021. The investment enabled the company’s operations in Lagos and Ibadan. The startup plans to start providing services in 5 more Nigerian cities over the next 6 months.

The company has now partnered with three Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) in Nigeria and hopes to increase this to five before the end of 2021. The partnerships will follow multi-city rollouts to enable millions of Africans to have access to the Awabah benefit.

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Speaking on Awabah, Co-founder Tunji Andrews said,

“Awabah in simple terms is an aggregator of wealth creation tools that are sorely lacking on the continent. We onboard the financial service providers, break their products into bite-size chunks, sprinkle a bit of the Awabah magic on it, and give this leverage to our customers.

“What’s even greater is that our services come completely at no charge to the customer. Financial services should liberate, not enslave.”

According to Tina Ajishebiyawo,

“It’s not that people in informal employment are too uneducated to control their finances. Quite the opposite. They manage highly complicated budgets on very tight margins. Effective retirement planning and savings help our customers more effectively confront the problems that keep them stuck in an inefficient cycle. Nigerians and indeed Africans have money – but their incomes are unpredictable and insecure; Awabah is fixing this.”

Congratulations Awabah, we are rooting for more wins.