This Black Woman-Owned Investing App Offers Financial Education In Your Mother Tongue
NAACP Image Award-nominated author Sabrina Lamb has launched Wekeza, an app that allows users to receive financial education in different languages. Users will be able to access US stocks in languages including English, French, Swahili, Hausa, Wolof, Zulu, and Haitian Creole, serving communities in the African diaspora across the US.
“We learn to invest better when education speaks our language and honors our culture, Lamb says in a press release. Wekeza connects deeply with the African Diaspora experience, breaking down barriers to generational wealth,” she adds.
Investing in your mother tongue
Wekeza, is an extension of Lamb’s award-winning nonprofit WorldofMoney.org, which taught 500,000 children about financial literacy. “Where WorldofMoney serves children, Wekeza is about building wealth for the entire family,” Lamb says on the Wekeza website.
After travelling to Africa and speaking to leaders, she realised that a lack of technology, regulation, and education was stopping people on the continent from buying stock. “It clicked that while there were technological barriers here in Africa, the obstacles in the US were mostly cultural,” she said.
“Wekeza is the only fintech designed to be the African diaspora’s home for generational wealth. Whether you’re from Senegal, Jamaica, or Harlem, Wekeza makes it easy to become financially aware, competent, and confident.”
Sabrina Lamb’s career
Despite being a successful entrepreneur, Lamb wasn’t always great with money. “I racked up debt traveling to sky destinations. When I got into college, I signed contracts for financial aid and opened credit cards to fund my lifestyle,” she says.
After being in debt, she took a financial education course, which inspired Lamb to create WorldofMoney.
Lamb is also the Silicon Harlem C-Better Pitch Fest Competition Grand Prize winner and is a graduate of the Y Combinator Start-Up School, a former member of the Master Your Card African American Advisory Council, and a global advocate for financial inclusion.
Image: Sabrina Lamb/Facebook
