Firm develops mobile app for will making

A team of young Nigerians have developed an app, Carrotng, to enable people securely create their wills, organise assets and secure their financial future.

Explaining the concept, in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES in Lagos, on Monday, the team lead, Odunayo Williams, said the mobile app and web platform was developed as parts of efforts to protect the rights of widows and family members of a deceased person.

He said the platform enables testators to appoint guardians for their children and aged parents, appoint trustees, witnesses and executors.

This, he said, will eliminate the falsification of wills and the struggle for a deceased person’s estate especially by family members.

Also speaking, another team member, Luqman Balogun, raised concerns over what he described as the low penetration of wills making in Nigeria.

According to him, less than five per cent of Nigerians write their wills.

He noted, “One of the challenges faced by Nigerians today is that of inheritance and estate planning. It is generally believed that the making of wills is an exclusive preserve of the rich but this is a false assumption. A recent study carried out by our team revealed that more men are writing wills than women.

It also showed that people 60 years and above or people working with organisations that insist on staff wills making are those writing their wills in Nigeria. We are trying to remove all barriers that prevent most families from getting the kind of legal and financial protection they need and deserve.”

He said their financial technology company comprises of experts who are lawyers, trust and estate practitioners, bankers, tax consultants and financial advisers.