Increasing loan conversion rates
from 1% to 83% at FairMoney
Background and initial challenges
FairMoney is a credit-led Neo Bank and the biggest digital lender in Nigeria with over 10,000 daily loan disbursements, and over 5 million users enjoying banking, savings, and investment services.
I joined them in 2021, when they were transitioning from a loan-only app into a neo-bank. Back then they had about 1.3 million users and disbursed roughly $93 million in loans in 2020
Building a team
With only one more designer in the team, one of my first challenges was also to build a team and growth ladders to keep them motivated
Missing information architecture
The team had built the product much as an MVP and it lacked the scale to be taken to the next level
Missing systems and processes
Different teams building fragmented flows, lacking coherence and consistency. The teams needed a standard design system and patterns, also lacked a consistent design and research process
Lack quality and not understanding the value of design
Being profitable and getting users the team did not care much for the value of design. To solve this, I had to pick up their HERO PRODUCT - LOAN and improve
The problem
The current loan application funnel while functional has a conversion of less than 5%
Loans being the main source of revenue we decided to solve this problem to make an impact within the team and create a value for the design team
Overview of the process
Research → Funnel analysis → Heuristic evaluation → Research
→ Funnel analysis → Heuristic evaluation → Technical evaluation
→ Summarising problems → Prioritising solutions in product roadmap → Design and testing → Measure and iterate
Research
The current loan application funnel had a conversion of less than 5%
To dig deeper we conducted on the ground research in 4 markets with 25+ users from different age and income segments
Also conducted telephonic interviews with existing loan users to understand how they interact with app and reasons for taking a loan with FairMoney
Talking to a POS business owner in Balogun market
Evaluating the current loan flow
The loan application had around 20 odd steps in the flow. For ease of understanding we broke the larger flow into groups. These were as follows:
Step 1
User Information
Information the user needs to share in order to process their loan application, these inlcude:
Personal Information ~ 5% drop
Bank Verification Number ~ 45% drop
Work Information ~ 10% drop
Guarantor Details ~ 2% drop
User’s Loan Requirements ~ 1% drop
Step 2
Processing & legal requirements
Steps needed to process the application, these include:
1. Consents and permissions ~ 4% drop
2. Loan processing screen ~ 12% drop
Step 3
Offer and Confirmation
Steps where we offer the loan and get a confirmation to move ahead from the user, these include:
Loan offer screen ~ 8% drop
Offer confirmation screen ~ 2% drop
Step 4
Post offer screens
Steps where the user had to connect a card or a bank account for auto debit of the installments, these included:
Card connection step ~ 23% drop
Redirection to partner for verification
Design insights from heuristic evaluation
Bloated forms and unused information
Unnecessary details asked which can be fetched from BVN database
Guarantor’s Details not used in credit profiling and also scared the users
Missing trust markers and bad layout choices
When taking the users’ BVN missing trust markers made them turn away
Too many active CTAs at card connection confused users
Technical and product insights from heuristic evaluation
Slow internet
speed
Users kill the app at this step as the bar freezes because of slow internet
OTP verification
failing
Major drop as BVN verification failing because OTP not delivering
Slow internet
speed
Users kill the app at this step as the bar freezes because of slow internet
Business and Product Impact
Application Completion
[1] New users in 6 months
[2] Repeat users in 6 months
5% →
83%
[1]
87% →
98%
[2]
[3] Reduced to under 1 minute for new users, even more efficient for repeat users with pre-approved offers
10+ mins →
1 min
[3]
2021 → 2023
$18.6m →
$297m
2021 → 2023
$93m →
$700m
Design Impact
While working on this project we also had to work on a design system and rebrand as well.
Here are some glimpses
Design System 0 → 1
Platforms: Android, iOS and Web
Foundations
Design Principles
Typography
Colours
Iconography and illustrations
Grid systems
Layouts
Components Library
← ~ 75% adoption by 2024 →
Scaling into a Neo Bank
In my 3 years here, we successfully managed to scale the loan-only app into a full service digital bank with services ranging from banking, lending, savings, investments and more
Targeting small businesses
We also expanded into B2B financial services with the acquisition of PayForce. I led the PayForce design team and helped them navigate co-branded solutions for parity
Designers for business team
Adebayo
Oyinloye
Joyce
Eboh
Stanley
Chukwuma
