Powering Liquidity: Designing Short-Term Loans for Mobile Money Agents

The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the need for e-money liquidity and had hit our customers in different ways. Around half of our mobile money agents (who are shopkeepers and sell goods such as groceries, electronics etc) have been able to keep their shops open and have seen customer demand remain constant due to the support of the Nigerian government promoting digital payments.

However, many of these agents have been unable to maintain enough liquidity to serve the demand, threatening their ability to generate income as well as the wider benefits associated with mobile money. As such, it was important as an innovative and inclusive fintech startup to provide a platform that will help facilitate access to much-needed e-money liquidity for mobile money agents and their small businesses.

It was important to ensure that we followed standard design principles to keep our team true to our original intention when the business may later be at odds with what's good for the consumer. We also made sure that the experience we create should be one that offers flexibility, support, and guidance for the user, not dictating their experience.

We relied on designing all parts of the experience to be as contextual as possible. If it's not absolutely necessary to show something at a given moment, we would not show it. Simplicity and convenience are at the core of the design, customers value an easy and simple loan application process, clear and transparent information about interest rates and fees associated with loans as well as loan offers based on their financial history, credit scores, and other factors.
Ensuring that we have good mobile navigation will boost the usability and experience of the product, and help users understand what to expect and remove any friction in the navigation patterns.

The Kshock feature is easily accessible from the menu of the Agent banking mobile app. For the first release we wanted to cater to agents who meet our eligibility criteria and are based in a few select locations where most of our agents make high volume transactions. We plan to rollout to other locations overtime, once the feature has gained traction amongst our agents.

Non-eligible agents: I decided thats the K-shock feature would not appear on the menu at all for agents who are not eligible, as I mentioned earlier, If it's not absolutely necessary to show something that is of no use to our users, we would not show it to ensure we keep the experience simple.

Eligible agents: For agents who are based in locations we do not cover, it was important to relay that message to them and let them know that we are working towards making the feature available for them. For Agents in locations we cover, they can right away view the maximum amount available to them for the day and get started with the loan process.

I wanted our agents to go through the loan application process in the shortest time possible, that means clearly and precisely letting the users know what they needed to do at each step of the process. The user gets started by accepting our terms, the next step clearly shows the maximum amount the user is eligible for, user inputs the amount, confirm details and submits the loan request. Simple and straightforward.

I wanted it to be clear for the users every step of the way from requesting for a loan, getting it approved, to settling the loan. A popup will notify agents on the app at every stage; when the loan is approved, when their wallet is credited, when repayment is due, when loan is settled and when repayment is overdue. It was also important to have a record or history of all the loans the user has ever requested for, whether it is still under review, approved or declined.

While due diligence was done to ensure that K-shock is offered to Agents who are credit worthy, we still needed to put in place certain measures to ensure that loans are paid back in due time. For defaulters who fail to pay back their loan when due, charges will automatically accrue daily up until the loan is repaid. This is to ensure that the Agent understand the need to pay back their loan when due. For unusually rare cases where loan repayment is overdue for a certain period of time, the agent's account will be put on hold and he/she will be unable to use our services or perform any transaction on the app until their loan is repaid.

For exceptional cases where loan cannot be repaid due to a special circumstance, the Agent can contact support with details and documentation and can be given more time to pay up their loan (at our discretion)

We completed the MVP requirements (design + implementation) within the space of 3 months. The loan feature was tested extensively with a group of customers, and feedback was collected through surveys, user testing sessions, and interviews. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with agents expressing appreciation for the simplicity, transparency, and personalization of the loan feature.

The loans feature was launched to the mobile app's user base, and adoption was quick and enthusiastic. It also increased customer engagement with the app and has led to an increase in loan applications and revenue for the Kudi. Additionally, the loans feature has received positive feedback from customers (as evidenced in the videos below), leading to plans for further development and enhancement of the feature.

It was clearly a much needed solution, with a lot of agents adopting the feature almost as soon as it was released. The corona virus had definitely had a negative impact on a lot of our agents and through this we were able to discover a unique opportunity to deliver value to them.

I was the sole product designer and working on this project alongside other stakeholders taught me a lot on how complex and challenging digital lending is in the fintech industry.

Looking back, I realise that this project was a demonstration of the importance of finding opportunities to continuously give value to our users. The adoption, positive feedback and increased revenue resulting from the loans feature indicate a strong return on investment for the project.