Let me be upfront, I am not an event person. I actively avoid hosting (and sometimes, attending) anything, ever. Why? My stress tolerance is low, and the chaos of planning events just sends me running. You’d have one group chat for communication, a separate notes app for the budget (or, in my case, a piece of paper that will definitely vanish), and scrolling through debit/credit alerts on my bank app to know who paid for what. Did I mention frantically calling vendors? It’s a mess.
As a curious person, when I heard about PartyVest, an app that claims to bring all these pieces into one place, I decided to see if it worked by hosting a small barbecue for five friends. Spoiler alert: the barbecue didn’t end up happening, but plotting it out on the app was its own kind of adventure. It was almost… fun.
Building a ‘faaji’ (enjoyment) ecosystem
PartyVest launched in September 2025 as a response to what General Manager Mobola Awe calls the Nigerian truth: that we celebrate everything, but planning anything feels like a battle. PartyVest began with a conversation between Awe, who had been working in events for over a decade, and an engineer about the endless tools she had to keep up with while planning events.
The first version of the product was designed to address planning, featuring budgeting, task monitoring, vendor tracking, and collaboration tools. But as the team tested the product, it became clear that Nigerians attend events, give gifts at them, promote them, and share memories from them, in addition to planning them. So, the product shifted into something broader.
“We wanted an entire ecosystem that caters to planners, attendees, people who want to give gifts, and people who want to receive gifts,” Awe said.
The app is designed to be a central hub for planning, discovering, attending, and remembering events within or outside a user’s network. The company is led by Awe, along with an executive team that includes Francisca Edoki, Edidiong Uwah, and Aisha Musa-Bawa.
It is backed by PiggyVest, the Nigerian online savings & investment platform, and Zrosk, an alternative investment management company, in a partnership that provides deep infrastructure for the app. PiggyVest Business powers the financial layer of the app, which includes the wallet system, vendor payouts, event account numbers, and inflows.
Into the PartyVerse: Planning “Yemi & Frnds Sunday BBQ”
When I started planning this event, I wanted to see how far I could get without feeling overwhelmed. So, I tapped ‘Create Event’ and was immediately prompted to define the vibe of the event. Since this was just an in-house hangout, I selected ‘Social and Community Gathering’ from the list. I named my event and set its timeline. I got a shareable event URL I could send to people and a slot to input the event description. Instead of typing out a paragraph, I let the built-in AI generate the description for me. It was a small detail, but for someone who was avoiding stress, it was a great start.
Next, the app asked for basic logistics such as the expected number of guests (I input 5 people), an estimated budget (I settled on ₦50,000 [$34.53]), and whether I wanted extra features like a wishlist that tells attendees what I would like them to bring, a budget tracker to manage expenses, and vendor management. Now, I didn’t strictly need to onboard vendors because it was all going to be DIY barbecue, but I enabled the feature anyway.
The app allows you to discover vendors for food, drinks, or rentals, which is an upgrade from sending Instagram DMs, wondering if the vendor is trustworthy. Awe explained that the vendor marketplace is curated, noting that the PartyVest team deliberately selects verified vendors and suppliers. For the aesthetics, I needed a cover image and a theme. You can upload your own, but I browsed the in-app library, selected a pre-made poster that perfectly fit the mood, and then the event dashboard appeared.
The planner’s dashboard is where PartyVest starts to feel like a genuine planning tool. At the top is a countdown clock showing how long I have before my event starts. Below that is my event wallet, which allowed me to generate a unique bank account number for my barbecue. “That account number is a Pocket App account number that PiggyVest Business APIs provides, ” Joshua Chibueze, co-founder of PiggyVest, noted, adding that the engine powering transfers to vendors is Pocket.
What’s interesting is that planners can earn daily interest on the money that sits in there. This effectively turns the planning period into an investment opportunity, ensuring that the money gathered for the event is actually growing until the moment it needs to be spent.
The planner’s dashboard also enables me to manage my budget effectively. I input my estimated costs for chicken, juice, fries, and drinks, and the app visualised it for me (who doesn’t love a good pie chart?). To keep my planning organised, I used the task tracking feature, which works like a shared to-do list where each person can be added as a planner and assigned specific tasks. I also pinned the event location, which integrates with Google Maps, so that guests can navigate directly to the venue without the usual back-and-forth of location sharing.
Guest management happens on the same dashboard. You can see people who have RSVP’d or those who have been invited. You can also rescind guest invitations (it’s your party, you can do what you want). You can send broadcast messages to everyone, including planners and guests, with reminders, updates, dress codes, and more. While all of this reflects the host experience, the guest side is much simpler. A guest will be able to see the event poster, location, date, time, event description, and the RSVP button.
There’s also a Memories section where guests can upload photos and videos from the event, similar to a shared gallery that doesn’t disappear after 24 hours, unlike Instagram stories. The gifting feature isn’t live on the app yet, but Awe gave a strong hint of what it would look like. She said the feature will include wishlists that can be shared, curated gift bundles, and the ability for friends to contribute money toward bigger gifts.
Aside from using the app to plan your own event, PartyVest has an explore page that lets users browse public events happening around. Users can buy tickets and save events they are interested in.
In the end, not a guest showed up for ‘Yemi & Frnds Sunday BBQ,’ but I had a full picture of what organising an event inside PartyVest feels like. The app successfully combined the fragmented mess of event planning, from handling money and guests, into a cohesive flow. It replaced the mental gymnastics of tracking bank alerts, WhatsApp messages, and disappearing to-do list papers with a dashboard that felt manageable.
PartyVest has ambitious plans to expand its infrastructure. Aisha Musa-Bawa, VP of Rental Operations, said the platform is actively building solutions for short-lets and vehicle rentals to solve the barrier to stress-free events. Awe also hinted at future moves into physical infrastructure, noting that the company aims to address venue shortages by potentially building event spaces down the line.
There’s still room for growth as more features roll out and the vendor ecosystem expands, but the app feels like something built for the way Nigerians party. Will I suddenly start hosting events every month? Probably not, but I now understand why PartyVest exists.
