Mkobo Bank — building a digital bank Nigeria's underbanked could trust.
Led design and brand for a digital microfinance bank from zero — from research and rebrand through MVP launch, onboarding rescue, and 40,000 accounts in year one.
Nigeria's banking sector sits on a $9 billion value pool, yet a majority of consumers remain underserved — limited rural access, affordability barriers, and poor experiences compound across the board. Mkobo Microfinance Bank set out to go digital-first, building a bank for economically active and salary-earning Nigerians.
I led the design team through rebrand, discovery, and MVP delivery — establishing the design system Mkobo still runs on today.
The existing Mkobo mark read informal and inconsistent across touchpoints. I led a full identity revitalization — a bridge-form mark suggesting connection and reliability — and rebuilt the visual system used across app, email, and internal dashboards.
We ran competitive analysis and research across existing and potential customers to validate our product direction and prioritize features.
Part-time student at the University of Lagos, working as an office administrator at an insurance company. Dedicated and goal-driven — earns ₦80,000 monthly.
- Manage her finances and finish her degree
- Wants a financial partner for urgent needs
"I come from a traditional Igbo family. I'd like to give them the world — they've been the backbone of my existence."
Moved to Lagos from Osun State for a better life. Works security at Halogen Securities, married with 2 kids, and is working his way up to increase his income.
- Needs a financial support partner
- Needs a better job to increase earnings
"I moved to Lagos for a better life. I'm married with 2 kids and want to provide for them uninterruptedly."
Account opening, onboarding, send & receive money, earned wage access, transaction history, KYC.
Savings, pay bills, payment links, request money, aggregated balance.
Post-MVP, sign-ups dropped off before reaching value. Follow-up calls, surveys and Mixpanel behavioural data on 100 failed sign-ups showed users abandoning the flow at the ID upload screen — the process felt overwhelming and time-consuming, and users wanted to see value before completing full KYC.
Users noted the process was overwhelming and time-consuming.
- Users wanted to get started quickly
- Trust needed to be built progressively
- Immediate value mattered more than full completion
"Wow, this app is so reliable, I love it, so efficient. Thumbs up to Mkobo."
"Mkobo is very fast and good online banking, easy to use, good services."
"Excellent."
Earned wage access needed an employer-facing side too. I designed the web dashboard HR teams use to manage staff, approve requests, and track spend against payroll — extending the design system from mobile to a data-dense desktop surface.
