Moniepoint Microfinance Bank & Funke Akindele: Driving  Savings campaign To encourage Nigerians To stay “One Step Ahead”

Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, the definitive bank for small and medium-sized businesses in Nigeria, as well as their customers and employees, has announced the launch of a heavily enhanced savings account product line, backed by a new brand campaign themed “One Step Ahead,” starring Nollywood superstar Funke Akindele, popularly known as Jenifa^.

The move comes at a time when many businesses and individuals are grappling with global economic uncertainties, even as consumers across Nigeria are demanding simpler, more flexible ways to save, with an increased demand for tools that not only build financial discipline but lay a real foundation for wealth.

Moniepoint’s response is a firm demonstration of its commitment to financial inclusion, giving people and businesses the confidence to save toward whatever their goals may be. The campaign, “One Step Ahead,” is built on a simple but powerful insight: for most people, the primary enemy of financial growth isn’t low interest rates, it’s life happening unexpectedly. The data backs this up.

In a recent customer survey, unexpected expenses account for 72.8% of savings disruptions, while irregular income affects 51% of savers nationwide. Rather than pushing a single, rigid savings plan, Moniepoint is championing something more valuable for the consumer – the peace of mind that comes with a versatile savings account built for long-term goals, yet flexible enough to absorb whatever curveball life throws next.

Speaking on the savings campaign, Babatunde Olofin, Managing Director of Moniepoint Microfinance Bank, expressed his excitement about what the new savings solutions mean for customers: “These innovative savings solutions were developed specifically to ease customer pain points. Our ecosystem gives everyone the flexibility to grow their money and access it whenever they need it, combined with some of the best rates in the market — an offering that is truly unique.” Olofin added that the mission behind the savings drive goes beyond the numbers: “Our mission is to create financial happiness for everyone. A savings product like this is a critical tool for ensuring people can confidently make their dreams come true while saving for both rainy and sunny days. The power and discipline to save help propel individuals and businesses toward their goals, while mitigating the harsh effects of unforeseen circumstances. Backed by the reliable digital payments infrastructure we’ve built, our customers can find safety, immediate access to liquidity, and the confidence to stay one step ahead of the future while mitigating the harsh effects of unforeseen circumstances.”

Serving over 20 million business banking and personal customers, the product features four distinct savings products tailored to different lifestyle, and cash-flow needs. Except for premium tiers, users can jumpstart their savings journey with as little as a ₦1,000 minimum deposit. Target Savings allows customers to withdraw up to 50% once without losing their interest, earning up to 11.5% p.a. Flexible Savings permits up to 4 withdrawals a month without losing interest, earning 9.5% p.a. Fixed Deposit pays interest up front, with rates of up to 17.5% p.a., while Save As You Transact allows customers to save as they spend and withdraw whenever they like, with no restrictions on access. In a market where competitive interest rates are scarce, Moniepoint’s new product line provides a great alternative for customers, leveraging the bank’s all-in-one solution to transact, save, and earn high interest on a platform backed by reliable service. Non-Moniepoint customers can easily stay one step ahead by downloading the Moniepoint business or personal banking mobile app, completing the simple online setup, and fulfilling the regulatory KYC protocols to open their account.

To bring this to life, the campaign’s choice of Funke Akindele within the Jenifa’s Diary universe as a creative anchor is auspicious. The show has aired since 2015, now spans over 20 seasons, and remains a fan favourite still in rotation on local and terrestrial TV, with the hair salon setting of the series offering the perfect backdrop to tell Moniepoint’s savings story within a world audiences already know and love. Funke Akindele is an influential cultural icon and award-winning actress, filmmaker, and Nollywood producer whose career achievements speak to her unparalleled influence across Nigeria and the global diaspora. As the most decorated individual in AMVCA history with 10 wins, she has redefined the commercial scale of African cinema. Her 2025 blockbuster, Behind the Scenes, made history as the first Nollywood film to surpass the ₦2 billion mark at the West African box office, while simultaneously breaking records as the highest-grossing Nollywood title of all time in the UK and Ireland. With cumulative career earnings now exceeding ₦4.7 billion, Akindele has been recognised by The Hollywood Reporter as one of the “Most Influential Women in International Film,” cementing her status as the undisputed “Queen of the Box Office.”

 The “One Step Ahead” push doesn’t arrive in isolation. It lands in the middle of one of the busiest, most consequential stretches in Moniepoint’s ten-year history, and the wider run of news around the company gives useful context for why fintech is doubling down on savings right now.

In late July, Moniepoint published its inaugural Impact Report, titled “Creating Financial Happiness,” marking the company’s evolution from a payments infrastructure provider into a full financial ecosystem. By the company’s own account, it now serves over 20 million businesses and individuals and processes more than $250 billion in transaction value annually. The report put a spotlight on credit access: Moniepoint disbursed over $700 million in loans to small and medium-sized enterprises in 2025, and for three out of four of those borrowers, it was their first taste of formal business credit. The company also pointed to strong movement on gender inclusion, with lending to women-owned businesses up more than 300% for the year and women accounting for 36% of its loan portfolio, well above typical industry benchmarks. On the technology side, Moniepoint’s USSD banking platform grew to five million users in 2025, a 500% jump year-on-year, while 88% of merchants who received loans reported business growth and 27% expanded their workforce.

The recognition has matched the growth. Moniepoint made TIME’s 2025 list of the 100 Most Influential Companies and was recognised by the Financial Times among Africa’s fastest-growing companies, with the business now employing more than 3,300 people across 10 countries. Around the same time, the company marked ten years of operation, having started life as TeamApt before rebranding to Moniepoint in 2023, and having grown from a back-end payments infrastructure provider for banks into one of the most important channels through which Nigeria’s informal economy moves money.

Expansion beyond Nigeria has picked up pace this year too. In March, Moniepoint completed its first major acquisition on the continent, taking a 78% majority stake in Kenya’s Sumac Microfinance Bank to secure its first licensed foothold in East Africa, after an earlier attempt to enter the market through payments company Kopo Kopo had stalled. The deal hands Moniepoint a deposit-taking licence along with an existing branch network and customer base to build on, positioning it to compete for a slice of Kenya’s roughly 7.4 million MSMEs. The Sumac deal came only days after Moniepoint’s acquisition of Orda Africa, a cloud-based restaurant management platform being folded into its Moniebook business tools, and follows an earlier move into the United Kingdom through the acquisition of Bancom Europe, an FCA-licensed e-money institution, alongside a more recent partnership with tell.money to support that UK push.

Back home, the company has continued to invest in the next generation of Nigerian talent and in its own product experience. In May, Moniepoint Group launched a series of innovation hubs worth ₦3 billion across three Nigerian universities, giving students hands-on access to the kind of engineering and product infrastructure the company runs at scale. That sat alongside a partnership with Google Developer Group Lagos and Women Techmakers Lagos aimed at supporting more women building careers in tech. On the product side, a Q1 2026 update rolled out a batch of new features shaped directly by customer feedback, from faster loan processing to cards that work more reliably across channels, and unlimited transfer cashbacks, which the company frames as part of a continuous cycle of listening to users and building against what they ask for, rather than shipping features in isolation.

Underpinning all of this is a funding story that has kept pace with the company’s ambitions. Moniepoint became a unicorn in 2024, and it has since topped up its Series C with an additional $90 million from investors including Development Partners International, Google’s Africa Investment Fund, Verod Capital, and Lightrock, bringing its total funding to over $300 million across more than 30 investors. That war chest is what has made the last year’s run of acquisitions, hub launches, and product rollouts possible without the company having to slow down on any single front, savings included.

Taken together, the picture is of a company using its balance sheet, its infrastructure, and now its biggest brand campaign yet to make a single argument to Nigerians: that saving doesn’t have to mean choosing between flexibility and growth. With Funke Akindele fronting “One Step Ahead” and a decade of infrastructure-building behind it, Moniepoint is betting that the next phase of its story will be written in the deposit accounts of the more than 20 million businesses and individuals already on its platform, and the millions more it hopes to bring on board.