Reaprite: Using bold ideas to curb rising inflation

Every morning, Mercy Uzodike rises before dawn to prepare a cooler of rice and a large pot of beans, as well as yams and an assortment of other staple foods to reheat and sell to customers from a roadside table in Yaba, a commercial hub in Nigeria’s commercial capital.

Last year, the mother of three would clear a monthly profit ranging from roughly N10,000 to N15,000, she said. But this year, she’s fallen deeper and deeper into the red, racking up monthly deficits between N30,000 and N40,000.

To change this narrative, Reaprite, a digital solution company, is helping Nigerians overcome inflation struggles by providing interest savings options that help in guarding the value of money against the rising cost of living.

According to the firm, the platform which was launched in 2020 with about 5,000 new users in its first month of operation, has enabled many people to fulfill their financial goals despite the harsh economic environment.

“Our motivation is to see the average Nigerian pursue their dreams despite the rising inflation which would otherwise have rendered them incapacitated,” Tunde Saliu, Managing Director, Reaprite, said.

The firm noted that the savings application is run by a team of individuals who have managed diversified investments in agriculture, real estate, foods and other viable portfolios.

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“Reaprite has enabled me to save towards a certification exam, a quarterly commitment I make, and a personal project I had hoped to execute for a long time,” Chukwuemeka Omeje, a Lagos based ICT security consultant, said.

In June 2022, Nigeria’s inflation rate reached a five-year high of 18.60 percent. The high inflation rate is challenging the over 100 million poor Nigerians.

The policy-setting committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has raised the monetary policy rate (MPR) from 11.5 percent to 13 and 14 percent in May and July respectively to help tame rising inflation.

The company says the impact of this is that market prices of consumer goods and services have been on a steady rise, with no respite in sight anytime soon. The same is the case for imported raw materials, industrial goods and import tariffs.