This app wants to help you improve your investing culture

If you’ve ever attempted to buy shares or stocks, bonds, or mutual funds from investment houses or the capital market, you may have had to wait for several days or weeks before your stockbroker can place your order or even make the trade happen.

At times, the process may take longer than usual, as your stockbroker would likely have to serve several other clients at the same time — which could be a potential deal-breaker — especially for time-sensitive stock purchases.

That’s why United Capital, a leading investment banking group in Africa, has introduced an app called InvestNow, that is making investing options easily accessible, allowing anyone to buy and sell shares directly from their mobile devices instantly, instead of using a stockbroker.

What it is?

InvestNow is a simplified investment application developed to boost the accessibility of investment options while enabling one to make returns on one’s investments.

With the app, which is currently available for Android and iOS devices, as well as via the web platform, individuals can start making investments and receive returns, with little or no guidance from a financial advisor.

Key features

Thanks to the ease of moving funds from your bank account into an investment without visiting the bank or the investment house, United Capital’s InvestNow app also allows for seamless integration with other financial institutions, making it easy for you to fund your investments from your bank account and receive a liquidation (or a withdrawal) of your interests or investments back into your bank account.

One of the key features of the InvestNow app is the capability of recurrent funding — ideal for salaried workers and regular earners — which automates your investing for a stipulated amount daily, weekly, or monthly directly from your bank account.

You can monitor all your investments — even those of your children or other loved ones — from a simple and easy-to-use dashboard, allowing you to clearly keep track of your investing activities at any time.

Some of the investment accounts or options you can create or transact on the app include Bond Fund, Equity Fund, Nigerian Eurobond Fund, Wealth for Women Fund, Retirement Planning, Stock Trading, Treasury Bills, Nigerian Diaspora Trust, and Simple Wills.

Most of the products available on InvestNow also offer free entry and exit, which means that you can fund your investment or decide to liquidate (make a withdrawal, perhaps as a result of an emergency or other constraints) easily and without any hidden charges.

How it works

Upon downloading the app for the first time, you would be required to sign up with your email address, first and last name, Bank Verification Number (BVN), and phone number. After you sign up, you will need to activate your InvestNow account via email and then set a password for your account.

The setup process also allows you to select two or more investment accounts or options and then fund the account directly from your regular bank account, using your debit card or bank account details.

Once you are set up completely, you can then sign in to your dashboard to begin your investment future with InvestNow.

Thoughts

Globally, investment apps have become one of the best options for new investors and experienced investors to get involved in not just the stock market but other investment opportunities that are out there.

However, in Nigeria, there’s a huge gap that United Capital is definitely filling with the InvestNow app. So whether you want to buy or sell a stock, InvestNow will make investing easier, faster, and affordable, and help improve your investing culture.

Apart from the key features highlighted such as recurrent funding, free entry and exit, and a consolidated dashboard, it would be interesting if the app would add notifications for real-time quotes, real-time price alerts, top financial and investment news and reports, etc in the future updates.

In the future, it is hoped that we would see the trading of cryptocurrencies through the app if Nigeria’s financial regulators approve the buying and selling of bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies in Nigerian banks and other financial institutions.