‌‌Budgeting apps are necessary for managing your money.  They give you personalized goals and guidance on how best to spend your money.‌‌ Budgets, expenses, and, savings are related, hence budgeting apps are meant to enhance savings and control expenses. In other words, one of the major purposes of living by a budget is to imbibe a good savings culture and track expenses.‌‌

A Google search for "budgeting apps in Nigeria" will attest to the fact that most popular budgeting finance apps listed in online stores are not built for Nigerians. Foremost examples that will pop up include YNAB (You Need A Budget), Mint, Wally, Pocketguard, Andromoney, Goodbudget, Monefy, etc. - these apps are designed for users in foreign countries.

There are not many popular Nigeria-centric budgeting apps yet. Almost a decade ago, there were a few budget apps leading the way but some like Unsplurge and Level Money, have shut down operations. Some other pioneers that are still in the business including Jetseed (formerly Pettysave), Kolopay, and Sumotrust are seemingly providing sub-par services; the apps are unavailable for newer versions of smartphones (meaning no recent updates), there are a series of bad reviews on both the google play store and apple store and no sign of recent communication to existing users.

The market for personal finance apps in general may be growing, but Budgeting apps seem to be taking a slower pace than others. Of the top 30 best finance apps in Nigeria of Google Play Store 2023, none are Nigerian budgeting apps. Deeper research would then reveal a handful of budget apps made for Nigerians. This is not the case when you try the personal finance app searches for Loans or Payments.

Nigerians need to take caution about which personal finance app to save their money on. Several reliable finance apps provide savings features in addition to other personal finance services, one such is Piggyvest. Piggyvest was one of the first Nigerian savings apps to gain popularity, it was first called "piggybank". But they soon diversified into investment. Cowrywise, besides being good for financial investment, it also has reliable budget features for savings.

‌‌In addition to Piggyvest and Cowrywise, the following are other personal finance budgeting apps for Nigerians in 2023:

CashBoxNg

Cash box is an online savings platform founded in 2019. The app provides a target template to help users save consistently, either daily, weekly, or monthly. All categories of savings on cashbox earn users up to 10% interest per annum.

The savings options on CashBoxNG include Target for a specific financial goal, Regular for saving funds you can withdraw once a month, Vault for savings that remain untouched and are locked away for at least 90 days, Swift for flexible savings of any amount at any time, and no automated savings, and Cliques for joint savings with family or friends.

CashBoxNg app has a 3.9-star rating from over 1000 reviews and more than 100,000 downloads on the Google Play store.

Trakka

Trakka is a relatively new personal financial tool that's designed to help individuals take control of their money. It was founded in 2022. The app categorizes various spending targets like transportation, phone & internet, food, etc., and automates budget creation. It has a rating of 4.6 stars from 178 reviews and over 1000 downloads.

Inflow

Inflow finance helps users to monitor all their money across different financial service providers in one place. This means that your different bank accounts are linked to your inflow account for easy viewing. Its purpose is to monitor spending, budget, and track expenses. This personal finance app began operations in November 2020.

Users of inflow can then sort their transaction history into pre-set categories, including transport, groceries, food, shopping, family, charity, bank charges, holidays, bills, entertainment, and others. This enables the effective creation of budgets and savings goals.  The app sorts all transactions of all accounts and gives the breakdown in those categories. It has 3.9/5 stars from 38 reviews and over 1000 downloads on the Google Play store.

Crowdyvest

Crowdyvest was established in 2019. They offer 15% p.a (per annum) interest on locked and target savings. Flexible savings in Naira earn 12.5% p.a while in dollars earn 7% p.a. Crowdyvest also has a savings plan for groups called " tribe", where different users can save towards a common interest. The app has 3.2 stars from 433 reviews and over 50,000 downloads on the Google Play store.

Tyms Africa - Savings Cycle

This app is a cash flow management platform enhancing savings. Tyms Africa has features for personal and group savings, tied to different financial goals. Users earn up to 18% interest on savings per annum.  Tyms Africa was officially founded in September 2021 and was formerly called 'Ajomoney'. The app has 4.2 stars from 194 reviews on the Google Play store as well as over 10,000 downloads.

The early year of establishment for each budgeting app listed above is further proof that Nigerian Budgeting apps are new. There is a need for more active budgeting initiatives in form of apps since the country is still experiencing continuous growth of interest in finance apps and the open banking regulation is now in play.

One Nigeria-centric Budgeting app to watch out for this year is the ‌‌Everyday money app. The app seeks to "Effortlessly conquer your financial goals with automatic fund allocation and smart budgeting in one powerful app." It will uniquely assist individuals to develop a saving culture via the internet, mobile technology, and budgeting tools. Drop your email here to join the waiting list for the Everydaymoney app.

Another budding savings platform is SavetoBuy.  They automate users' savings towards a particular goal like buying a pair of shoes or a new house. Although they haven't launched their app version, they have a web version of their product that was unveiled in January 2023.  On SavetoBuy users can earn up to 15% interest. They are in partnership with Paystack ,VFD, and Capital stone asset management.

Updated (4th Nov. 2023):

EverydayMoney budgeting app is now available on Playstore and Appstore.