AI
Voice Banking
Mobile App
Wema Bank
Lead Product Designer
Dec 2024 – Jan 12, 2026
Contactless payment
Contactless payment
Contactless payment
Led the complete redesign of Nigeria's first digital banking platform from end-of-life infrastructure to AI-powered lifestyle application. Collaborated with 200+ stakeholders (multiple squads across design, engineering, product, QA, DevOps, business) across continents to deliver intelligent and personalised-driven banking experiences targeting 30M customers by 2028.
—Here's a glimpse of how they brought us a step closer to the bank’s goal.
An overview of the the final look
Overview
The previous mobile app was dying. Not figuratively, literally dying.
The mobile SDK (Software Development Kit) that powered critical components was reaching end-of-life. No more vendor support. No more security updates. No more patches. Just a ticking time bomb of vulnerabilities and compatibility issues waiting to crash when the next iOS or Android update rolls out.
But the technical crisis was just the symptom. The real problem? We were losing the market.
Several Neobanks and Fintechs launched in Nigeria over 7 years since the first version was launched.
Youth demographic exploding, mobile usage skyrocketing, and we were stuck with a UI that screamed "your grandfather's bank".
Features buried under several taps.
Poor dark mode accessibility.
Frequent crashes during transactions (the worst possible time).
Line input field with no placeholder.
Lots of reds in-app which is the brand’s main colour.
The goal wasn't just to fix what was broken, it was to leapfrog the competition and reclaim our position as Nigeria's digital banking leader.
This wasn't about building "a better banking app." This was about creating something that had never existed in Nigeria/Africa: a truly intelligent banking platform that anticipates your needs, adapts to your life, and gets out of your way.
Metrics
30 million customers by 2028 through intuitive, 60-seconds onboarding.
25% increase in retention via AI-powered personalization.
65% reduction in operational costs through automation.
Real-time fraud detection powered by AI.
Omnichannel experience serving underserved communities nationwide.
Personalized dashboards and virtual advisors that feel like magic.
As the most senior product designer (longest tenure at the company), I was responsible for more than just "designing screens." I was leading design strategy, managing junior designers, reviewing work across all pillars, and making final calls when conflicts arose.
What I Led?
Drove research and design thinking phase with internal designers and 3rd-party vendor.
Led low-fidelity design phase (user flows, wireframes, information architecture).
Co-led design system creation from scratch, aligned with engineering, product and branding.
What I Led?
Solo designer for 4 critical pillars: Wealth, Payments, Lifestyle and Account Maintenance.
Reviewed, collaborated and supervised all designer’s work across other pillars (Cards, Loans, Onboarding).
Enforced design system adoption through 1:1 design critiques and feedback.
What I Led?
Coordinated user testing with interns and junior designers.
Collaborated with QA teams, and stakeholders on feedback.
Handled continuous iterations based on feedback and findings.
As the most senior product designer (longest tenure at the company), I was responsible for more than just "designing screens." I was leading design strategy, managing junior designers, reviewing work across all pillars, and making final calls when conflicts arose.
Design for Nigeria's diverse users: varying literacy levels, disabilities, unreliable networks. If it's not accessible, it's not done.
Architecture that grows from 8 pillars today to 20+ tomorrow without breaking. Every component, every pattern, every decision had to think five years ahead.
3D animations, seamless micro-interactions, premium feel. This had to look and feel like we belonged in 2026, not 2016.
AI-powered predictions, personalization, voice interactions. The app should feel like it knows you.
Quality that stays relevant, functional, and beautiful for years. No trendy gimmicks that age poorly.
Unified design system preventing the fragmentation that plagued version 1.0. One language, one voice, one experience.
I worked within a combination of Agile and waterfall. The development process were in phases, broken down based on the Job to be done.
Before we could design anything, we needed to fix the underlying chaos. We kept the core brand colors but generated more tints and shades for flexibility. Created custom dark mode shades (not simple inversion) tested for accessibility. Built new gradient library for premium feel. Introduced Swiss Neue typeface to replace the legacy font.
Outdated components with hard-coded values.
Low adoption (designers creating one-offs, engineers inventing styles).
iOS and Android looked like different products.
Failed accessibility standards.
Dynamic component aligned with the brand guidelines.
High adoption with consistency, size and usability in-mind.
iOS and Android looks identical.
3D elements adoption.
Personal Savings: Stash, Spend & Save, Receive & Save, Fixed Savings, Flexi Savings, Mega Goal, Dollar Savings, Lockup Goal
Group Savings: Rotating Savings, Target Savings, Savers Club
Investments: US Stocks, Treasury Bills
AI-Driven Savings Recommendations: Removes decision paralysis especially for users that don’t know which savings product fit their goals. Users go from "I should save money" to "I'm saving N100,000 monthly in Fixed Savings for my wedding" in 60 seconds.
Stock Charts: The old app didn’t show graph which is insufficient for investment decisions. Multi-timeframe views (1D, 1W, 1M, 1Y, All), candlestick patterns, volume indicators.
Universal Lockup Feature: Added lockup toggle to all savings types with customizable durations. Helps users commit to goals and freeze impulsive withdrawals. Can't raid your house deposit savings on impulse.
Sun & Moon Time Indicators: "Sun & Moon" visual indicators showing time remaining. Sunrise = market is opened. Sunset = market is closed.
First-Time User Feature Intros: Wealth features are a lot and can be confusing for first time users.
Transfer (Send Money), Airtime/Data, FX Sales, eVoucher, Bills, BNPL, Remita, Scheduled Payments, Network Uptime, Contactless Payment
Real-Time Transaction Tracker: Live tracking UI showing transaction stages: "Debited → Sent → Received."
AI-Powered Bank Prediction: AI predicts recipient bank based on account number patterns (bank codes embedded in numbers). Auto-fills bank name after 10 digits entered for account name validation.
Smart Amount Suggestions: AI suggests amounts based on transaction history; chips UI below input field for one-tap selection.
Visual Bank Identification: Added bank logos to search results, bill provider logos, eVoucher merchant logos. Icons left-aligned, names right-aligned for scannable hierarchy.
Contactless NFC Payments: Device-to-device NFC transfers. Game-changer for small merchants and peer-to-peer payments.
Enhanced Receipt Sharing: Share as PNG (for WhatsApp) or PDF (for email) with one tap.
Account Upgrade/Reactivation, Transaction Limit Increase, Account Statement, Report Error, Transaction History, Settings (Dashboard Customization, Voice Banking Setup, Contactless Setup).
App Appearance: Your dashboard becomes yours. Switch between 2 dashboard types, theme and dashboard colour.
Voice Banking (SAW) Setup: Gamified step setup: "Say your name" → "Repeat phrase" → "Confirm identity." Used the AI animation for visual feedback during recording.
Transaction History (Money in/Out filter): Segmented transaction history. Toggle between “Money out" and “Money in.” Track transactions.
Facial Validation Layer: In-app facial verification for instant approvals, account upgrade, reactivation and app security.
Who: Design team, PMs, QA leads
Focus: Functional correctness, interaction bugs
Cadence: End of every 2-week sprint
Who: Bank-wide staff (~1,500 people)
Focus: Real-world usage, edge cases
Cadence: Monthly builds
Who: Staff families, friends, waitlist users (~2,000 people)
Focus: Onboarding friction, feature discovery, ease of use
Cadence: December 1 – January 12
This project transformed me from a senior IC into someone who understands what it means to lead at scale.
I learnt to speak their language. Business stakeholders need ROI, engineers need feasibility, designers need rationale. Reviewed with designers, PMs, presented to seniors and stakeholders, convinced skeptical engineers.
Evolved from designing features to a complete ecosystems (design systems, AI pipelines, cross-pillar dependencies).
Empathy isn't just for users. Balanced user needs, business goals, engineering constraints, vendor relationships.
Encouraged the 3D designer to reuse elements to prevent app bloat and also ensure consistency; reduce the reds in a lot of the icons and factor in size when handing over.
Some decisions made verbally weren't documented. Info lost when stakeholders changed.
Late copy changes caused rework to some flow.
We wasted several design sprints debating scope with no clear feature prioritisation.
I learnt to speak their language. Business stakeholders need ROI, engineers need Initially all designers worked together on core flows instead of split into squads earlier. We lost about 3-4 weeks on ideation, going in circles and several internal conflicts., designers need rationale. Reviewed with designers, PMs, presented to seniors and stakeholders, convinced skeptical engineers.
AI-Finacial Health Manager to support the users by providing insights on their finance status.
Gamified loyalty and rewards features like spin the wheel to rewards loyal customers.
Working on the designs of squads that were deprioritised against next app update.
Monitor customer feedback and iterate in collaboration with the team. Expand AI personalization from reactive (based on history) to predictive (anticipate user needs) with hyper personalisation.
Currently open to full-time or contract opportunities in User experience design & brand identity design
© 2026 All rights reserved - Designed & made in Webflow by Themmy (Still me)
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