A Layman’s Guide to Investing: Doubble.Ng

Portfolio diversification. Depending on your investment strategy, you may choose this approach, where you combine a variety of assets with the aim of reducing the overall risk of your investment portfolio. This is my style of investing as I don’t like to ‘put all my eggs in one basket’. As a result, I spread my capital across different investments so that I reduce my exposure to any particular risk or asset and this means always looking for the next basket to house my eggs in on this financial journey. Through this season of unpredictability and to latch on to the buzz word, unprecedented times, it has been more apparent how important it is to have multiple streams of income. Whilst not being spread too thin and considering the level of risk involved, carefully curating your investment portfolio has become more important than ever. That’s why when I heard about Doubble.Ng, I thought of trying it out as one of my low risk investment vehicles and here’s my experience so far.

Doubble.Ng is an investment platform which is powered by Sterling Bank and gives users the option of saving and investing in either a lump sum or smaller bits in either Naira or Dollars over a short or long time period. I did some research and Doubble.Ng claims that the platform is designed to enable you to save easily and achieve financial targets; they went a step further to say “Investing anywhere else would be settling”. Alright then, I was curious, so I logged on to the website, Doubble.Ng and I set up an account.

It is a good time to mention that Doubble.Ng is available as a website, and there is also an option to invest through Sterling banks OneBank app which is available on both the Google Play Store and iOS App Store.

Getting Started:

After I set up an account and went through the verification process, I was able to access the platform. The first thing I noticed was that in order to invest, I needed to have a sterling bank account… well played Sterling Bank! I grumbled a little bit at the thought of opening yet another account but it was actually quite straightforward to set up and as soon as I put in my details and uploaded a passport photo, means of identification and signature, I had an account number. It literally took less than five minutes to fill the form and get an active account number. Anyone who already has an account won’t need to go through this whole ordeal of course.

I stumbled on a really cool feature called the Doubble.Ng Calculator and after playing around with this, the thought of setting up different plans came to mind thinking of a bucket for maybe kids or a special occasion or holiday, school, wedding, rent, emergency fund.. (the expenses really go on and on). I noticed that it was possible to purchase multiple plans and as an option, I could put other beneficiaries if the money was intended for someone else and simply funding my associated sterling bank account with a minimum of 5,000 Naira was the first step on this journey. Again, using the calculator, you can check how much in returns an invested sum would get you.

Investment Plans:

Now, the seemingly difficult bit was done so I went ahead to try out my first investment with the Doubble Reward where it was advertised that you can make up to 100% returns on your investment. There are different investment options to choose from here, and the minimum to invest is 5,000 Naira. The idea behind this is you invest either in one contribution or monthly and payouts will be paid monthly either to you or any beneficiary of your choice. Here is a closer look at the options — With Doubble, you can save towards your projects, children’s school fees, vacations, parents’ upkeep and lots more:

• Doubble 3: You make contributions to this fund for 3 years and then you get paid for 3 years. The return is 25% on invested funds. Think of someone going to university in 3 years, a contribution to Doubble 3 for 3 years will enjoy 3 years of payments from this fund during university.
• Doubble 5: You make contributions to this fund for 5 years and then you get paid for 5 years. The return is 50% on invested funds. Here, one can cover anything from children’s pocket money to parents’ upkeep and making contributions for 5 years will mean regular payouts for the next 5 years for your dependants.
• Doubble 10: You make contributions to this fund for 5 years and then you get paid for 10 years. The return is 100% on invested funds. Someone who has just started a business can make contributions for the first 5 years and enjoy payments for 10 years that can be used towards running the business or even taking care of other expenses.
• Doubble Lumpsum: You make an initial lump sum payment to this fund and you get monthly pay-outs starting from year 6 up until year 10. The return is 100% on invested funds. Imagine starting this when your child is born with the aim of contributing these funds towards school fees; by the time they are 6 years old, you’ll get paid till they are 16! Wow!

Next, I looked at Doubble Target investment where you can invest in Naira or Dollars and earn up to 10% interest. Setting up this plan, you input your preferred currency, investment duration (ranging from 6 months to 20 years), investment frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, bi-annually or yearly) and finally the target amount. The general idea behind this plan is that you can save a sizeable amount towards achieving a target over time and the interest can be paid as a markup to help hit the target. Little drops of water make a mighty ocean so bearing in mind that there are different investment frequencies ranging from daily to annually, the minimum target amount for Naira is 250,000 and for Dollar investments is USD 5,000. The interest rates vary at 5% per annum for contracts below 48 months, 5.5% per annum for contracts between 48 and 59 months and 6% per annum for contracts above 60 months.

Lastly, I thought to explore the Doubble Fixed Investment plan which is also denominated in Naira or Dollars. Here, you can fix a set amount of funds for a selected investment duration of either 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 180 days, 364 days, 2 years or 3 years. The Naira investment is set at a minimum of 50,000 Naira to earn up to 5% interest per annum in interest and the Dollar investment is set at a minimum of USD 500 to earn up to 2.5% per annum in interest. By selecting your fixed investment amount, the account to fund from and whether to roll over principal or principal plus capital or not to roll over at all, either you or a selected beneficiary will receive a payout when the funds reach maturity.

Referrals:

We all love referral money and I was excited to see the Doubble.Ng Referral. Just like other referral schemes, you earn points when others sign up with your link (mine is ADE59334). Here, you get 250 points when someone signs up but there is a catch because points can only be redeemed when you have a minimum of 1,000 points so we’re going to have to discover this one together.

Thank you for reading and I hope this was helpful. Please note that all views are mine and stand true for the time this article was written.