Guardian Women interviews Tomie on the importance of financial literacy and inclusion

In this interview with TOBI AWODIPE, she talks about the importance of financial literacy and inclusion, especially among women, the danger of ponzi schemes, challenges of finding investment opportunities in Nigeria, financial freedom for young people and how investment clubs can lead to economic growth for women.

What inspired TGIC and when did you realise that an investment club was something people needed?
BACK in 2015, I started a blog to share my investment experience; I was on a personal journey to figure out how to invest correctly and I decided to share my experience on my blog. At the time, I had a couple of email subscribers, but I noticed subscriber interest piqued when I shared about starting an investment club with friends.

In 2014, I started an investment club with four friends in a bid to get better with money, contribute money to invest and hold myself accountable on my investment journey. When I blogged about my investment club, I was surprised at the interest, so I held a couple of investment workshops to teach what I had learned about investing, share my experience starting an investment club and also invite experts to share their practical investment experience with those who attended the workshops. The workshops led to requests to start an investment club that was community-based, that anyone could join without knowing the other members. I thought it was a great idea, as we did not want more members in our private investment club at the time.

I created a framework for a community-based club and shared the idea with my email subscribers to see who was interested. When 35 people signed up and paid to join the Green Investment Club (TGIC), I knew it was something people needed. As a community, TGIC has continued to evolve in approach and offerings. We focus on financial education and connect the members of our community to credible investment options from the SEC-registered companies we work with. From 35 members in 2017, we currently have 1900+ members resident across 38 countries. We are very particular about the members who join us and require a referral code from an existing member or an application from new members. This is to ensure those who join, join for the right reasons, which include learning how to invest correctly and take action on achieving their financial goals.

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