Case Study: Digitizing Communal Savings to Foster Financial Inclusion in Nigeria
My Role: Product Manager & Product Designer
Timeline: March– June 2025
Platform: Mobile (Android, iOS)
Overview
NestFund is a digital group savings platform that empowers individuals to save money collectively in a transparent, secure, and rewarding way. Inspired by traditional thrift models like “ajo” or “esusu,” NestFund provides a structured, tech-enabled system for managing communal funds, increasing trust and accountability in informal financial communities.
I led the project from problem discovery to MVP delivery, wearing both the Product Manager and Product Designer hats. My goal was to craft a solution that simplifies group savings while incorporating incentives like interests, transparent tracking, and customizable group rules.
The Problem
Many Nigerians participate in offline group savings schemes due to limited access to formal banking or investment platforms. However, these systems face consistent problems:
Discovery & Research
Lack of transparency: Members can't always verify contributions or payouts.
No formal records: Organizers manually track data, increasing errors and disputes.
Location-bound: Physical meetings exclude remote or traveling members.
Trust issues: Mismanagement and fraud are common due to cash-based operations.
These barriers prevent the full potential of group savings from being realized, especially for women, students, small business owners, and low-income earners.
My Approach
Discovery & Research
Conducted interviews with 15+ existing thrift group participants.
Surveyed over 30 Nigerians to validate the need for a digital group savings tool.
Discovered that trust, ease of contribution, and real-time visibility were top concerns.
Product Strategy
Vision: To become the go-to platform for transparent and rewarding group savings in Africa.
Goals:
Make saving social, simple, and secure.
Enable groups to customize their rules (e.g., payout order, frequency).
Introduce gamification via badges and rewards to boost consistency.
Feature Prioritization
Using MoSCoW prioritization and Lean MVP principles, I led the definition of core features for the MVP:
Must-Have Features
Group creation and member invitation
Savings contribution tracking and payout scheduling
In-app notifications and reminders
Simple interest system
Should-Have Features
Wallet integration with funding and withdrawal options
Transaction history
Option to auto-debit from wallet
Could-Have Features
Chat within group
Insights dashboard
UX & Design
Sketched low-fidelity wireframes in Figma to map core flows (onboarding, joining a group, making contributions).
Designed high-fidelity screens.
Iterated after testing with 5 users using a clickable prototype.
Key Features
What I Learned
A digital product must still respect traditional systems, language, payment habits, and group dynamics.
Introducing even ₦100 bonuses for consistency improved cycle completion rates.
Users loved seeing how the group’s pot was growing and who had contributed.
My Role Breakdown
Conducted interviews and surveys to understand group saving behaviors and pain points.
Created a clear value proposition centered on trust, transparency, and reward-based savings.
Broke down user journeys for registration, group creation, and savings cycle.
Built wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes in Figma for core flows (group management, wallet).
Used MoSCoW to define scope and avoid feature creep.
Documented use cases, acceptance criteria, design and tech requirements for dev handoff.