Eight in 10 Nigerians Have No Will, Seedwills CEO Says Bank and Pension Accounts Should Be Linked

Eight in ten Nigerians do not have a will, according to Kelvin Ojomo, founder and CEO of Seedwills, a digital platform that simplifies will creation. He said personal bank, pension, insurance and share accounts should be linked to a will so that those assets are secured when the holder dies.

Ojomo spoke with Nairametrics about why adoption remains low, how Nigerian law treats digitally created wills, and what reforms could open up the market.

The Numbers Behind the Gap

"I conducted a couple of studies, and I found out that eight in ten Nigerians have no will," Ojomo said. "With a population of over 250 million people, we know that about 111 million of those are already aged 18 plus. We would expect that knowledge is as penetrated, but that's not what we have right now."

Why People Delay

He blamed the gap on misconceptions rather than cost alone. "A lot of people have some notions around will writing. They feel like you have to be a wealthy person to have a will. And some other people feel like it's complicated. You need to have a lawyer, you need to pay a huge amount of money to get this done," he said.

Others believe a will is for the very old, or something to sort out on a sick bed. "Death is uncertain," Ojomo said. "You want to be able to say, okay, after I'm gone, the things that I've worked for go to the people that I want, that I care the most about."

Without a will, a person dies intestate, meaning state laws and government formulas decide who inherits, often after lengthy court delays and unintended family disputes. Estate planning is still widely seen in Nigeria as an expensive, tedious task reserved for the elderly or the wealthy.

Digital Wills and Nigerian Law

Nigeria does not yet accept digitally signed wills, Ojomo said, unlike some other countries. Seedwills uses a consultant lawyer to keep whatever it produces within the law. "The platform helps you come up with and generate that document, and then you physically have to sign it with your witnesses," he said. The document is then lodged in the appropriate courts.

Probate, Reform and Bank Integration

On probate being seen as slow and costly, Ojomo said technology is itself the reform. Some countries allow wills to be lodged online and secured, but in Nigeria people still have to go physically to the courts, a step he said technology can replace.

"We are in the era of AI, we are in the era of technology getting better and institutionalized systems should also improve as technology continues to evolve," he said.

He backed linking wills to bank, insurance and pension accounts, saying the current next-of-kin system "has not been able to fill these gaps comfortably. So what we need is a will system that is properly integrated with banks and everything." That, he said, gives peace of mind because pensions, finances, shares and other financial instruments are secured in the event of death.