Thrifto, a Nigerian financial technology platform reinventing traditional group savings, has been formally launched to the public, offering safeguarded group savings with guaranteed payouts for salary earners and traders.
The latest initiative of the platform developers followed a successful soft launch to family and friends, and is now opening access to the wider public, providing a secure, transparent, and bank-backed alternative to informal savings schemes such as ajo and esusu.
According to the developers of the digital payment platform, Thrifto aims to eliminate trust failures that have plagued informal group savings for decades, combining structured savings, verified membership, and technology-driven safeguards to ensure contributors save together with confidence.
The Founder & CEO of the fintech platform, Sulaimon Durojaiye, stated that at this initial stage of the launch, Thrifto would be onboarding salary earners working with organisations in some key sectors, including financial institutions, oil and gas companies, telecommunications companies, technology companies, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and viable state governments, subject to verification.
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Similarly, industry expert added that traders and individuals who may not work with any of the above organisations can still onboard at this stage by obtaining special Onboard Codes from Thrifto-designated Connectors.
He stated that this phased onboarding approach was designed to strengthen trust, accountability, and platform stability as Thrifto scales.
Expatiating on the Thrifto fintech works, Durojaiye explained that once a user completed KYC and had been verified, the platform automatically creates a personal virtual bank account (wallet) for the user, domiciled with a partner bank.
He added that users can create savings groups of 2 to 12 members, set contribution amounts, savings cycles (daily, weekly, or monthly), and payout order, join any listed group on the platform, fund their wallet and make contributions seamlessly and receive lump-sum payouts directly into their wallet and withdraw to any Nigerian bank
The Co-Founder/CEO maintained that group creators may invite members via WhatsApp, email, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or allow open participation through Thrifto’s Join Group feature.
On trust rating system, the innovator stated that a core innovation of Thrifto remained its Trust Rating System, which assigns credibility scores to users based on KYC completion and verification status Contribution consistency and history.
Durojaiye highlighted the participation behaviour across savings groups in the platform, saying that Thrifto platform enables users to make informed decisions about who they save with, while promoting discipline and accountability within the ecosystem.
He expatiated: “Thrifto is purpose-built for Salary earners planning for rent, school fees, asset acquisition, and major life expenses, market traders saving daily or weekly from fluctuating cash flows, and person seeking the benefits of group savings without the risks of cash handling, defaults, or broken trust.
“All over Nigeria, people lose money and relationships because informal group savings rely on blind trust. Thrifto keeps the discipline of group savings but replaces blind trust with verification, transparency, and secure banking infrastructure”, the expert stressed.
Thrifto was formally unveiled to the public on Monday, December 1, allowing users to sign up, complete verification, create or join groups, and begin saving immediately.
The developers maintained that to support early adopters, Thrifto was designed with a dedicated WhatsApp support community to assist users with sign-up, login, KYC completion, and onboarding challenges.
Digital payment industry experts believe that by combining Nigeria’s long-standing group savings culture with modern technology and regulated banking infrastructure, Thrifto has ushered in a new era in the industry be enabling collective saving that is secure, transparent, and reliable.
