AfriCred

AfriCred started as a pitch deck, a Google Form and a spreadsheet

Interest in studying abroad keeps growing, but millions of young Africans can't get a student loan or an affordable, secure way to send money. AfriCred set out to change that.

When we started, students applied through a Google Form. The team worked every application by hand in Excel, and approving a loan took weeks. There was no product, no brand and no visual identity yet.

We built AfriCred from the ground up. That meant the product vision and brand, research and journey mapping, UX strategy, interface design and the design system. We also led the team across design, development and compliance through to launch.

We agreed on three principles before designing anything: access, clarity and trust.

Trust was fragile, so every screen had to earn it

We interviewed:

• 10 students exploring loans or scholarships
• 6 parents and guardians paying for study abroad
• 3 diaspora professionals using informal remittance networks
• 2 local financial institutions and regulatory experts

What we heard:

• Many students were intimidated by debt and said they'd had little loan education.
• Remittance users were tired of hidden fees, vague timelines and clumsy apps.
• People trusted word of mouth over platforms, even when word of mouth wasn't safe.
• A financial platform looked like government paperwork until it proved otherwise.

The product replaced the spreadsheet

1. 01

   A loan console for the admin team

   Before

   Every application went through a manual Excel process, and approval took weeks.

   What we designed

   A loan management dashboard where admins see each application as it arrives and act on it straight away.

   What changed

   Approval went from weeks to days.

2. 02

   The stages, automated

   Before

   AfriCred already worked in stages, but every move was manual, and applications dropped out between them.

   What we designed

   A staged timeline that carries each application from review, through partner lenders, to disbursement. Admins move it forward, and the borrower follows the same stages from their side.

   What changed

   The hand-offs where applications got lost now run as an automated workflow.

3. 03

   Onboarding inside the product

   Before

   Students applied through a Google Form, and their answers were processed in Excel.

   What we designed

   A guided application. Students reach their dashboard before verification finishes, check their status there, complete anything pending, and more of the product opens up as they go.

   What changed

   Onboarding completion rose 35% over the Google Form and Excel process.

4. 04

   Fees and conversion shown where you pay

   Before

   Research showed hidden fees and vague timelines frustrated remittance users.

   What we designed

   Currency conversion and the processing fee appear at the last step, when the student pays tuition, beside a preview of the whole application.

Payments across five countries were the hardest problem

Making payment and currency conversion work in five countries was the toughest challenge on the project, and it demanded substantial interface changes. We started on Stripe and moved to Flutterwave.

A student loan and a money transfer are different jobs

So we designed two separate paths instead of one generic flow.

Our research persona, Moses, is 22, from Ibadan, heading to Canada for a Master's in Public Health, and uses an Android phone every day.

A brand built for trust, starting with the name

We led the identity from a naming workshop onwards.

• Mark: the map of Africa combined with the letter A, for inclusion, growth and trust.
• Colour: deep greens and blues for financial security, with a warm yellow for optimism.
• Type: Creato Display, with bold weights kept for hierarchy.
• Voice: calm, encouraging and informative, never stiff.
• Guidelines so marketing, onboarding and future landing pages stay consistent.

Help sits where people get stuck

• Help built into the forms, with tooltips and modals where questions come up.
• Real-time validation for bank details, KYC uploads and loan terms.
• "Verified Partner" and "Secure Transfer" badges, timeline indicators, and careful error handling at the points where people used to drop off.
• Micro-interactions that give feedback and build trust.
• A modular component system for cards, buttons, inputs and progress trackers, shared across web and mobile.
• Designed web-first and fully responsive, for students who live on their phones.

Sign-in to dashboard

Sending money

The amount, the conversion and the purpose, then a preview of every detail before the transfer goes.

Student loans

A step-by-step application, a table of every loan, and a tracker for each stage up to disbursement.

Admin

The console that took approval from weeks to days.

We worked with the engineers every day until launch

Weekly design and development syncs managed scope and feasibility, and daily standups unblocked engineers with clear design intent. Design QA sessions checked UI integrity and responsiveness, and a lightweight design system handoff set the product up to scale.

10,000+ users within six months of launch

Many of them were first-time borrowers applying on their own.

• $6M+ in student loans paid out, with admin-configured offers, clear repayment breakdowns and live progress tracking.
• 2,000 successful global admissions.
• 5 countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

AfriCred is now GlobCred

The early results validated the product and led to a usability revamp. AfriCred has since grown into GlobCred.