Sinapi Aba | Red Thread Innovations

At a glance

Sinapi Aba Savings and Loans wanted to expand its ability to provide banking services and financial literacy to women entrepreneurs in Ghana. Red Thread Innovations working with Opportunity International Canada developed the product strategy and new modern mobile banking platform to service small and medium-sized businesses.
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Service: New Product Launch

Expertise

Digital Product Strategy

UI & UX Design

UX Research

Technology Architecture

Android & IOS Development

Technology

Swift

Kotlin

React Native

Typescript

Challenge

Support Sinapi Aba in expanding financial inclusion to women entrepreneurs in Ghana.

Solution

Create a scalable, mobile banking platform offering online banking and integrated financial education.

Result

The new mobile banking platform modernized Sinapi Aba’s banking services providing their customers a convenient, meaningful way to better manage their finances.

Customer-driven discovery

Using a human-centred design approach we conducted extensive customer interviews, research and persona development to define customer needs. We synthesized the data, creating user journeys and conducted usability testing to ensure intuitive navigation and clear access to banking information aligning with Sinapi Aba business goals and the education needs of its entrepreneurs.

Scalable design

As the new platform was designed, we developed a system that met the business logic needs of Sinapi Aba, aligned with the interaction logic necessary to allow users to access banking services. Our engineers, designers, and product specialists worked collaboratively to deliver a scalable system anticipating future growth.

Managing money

We integrated their enterprise systems with the new banking platform and ensuring security through multi-factor authentication. This allowed customers, who rely on their mobile devices, to now securely send and transfer money, pay bills, and even top-up their mobile airtime making banking more efficient.

Payments made simple

We simplified and expedited making payments to vendors by implementing Gh QR. A universal QR code that allows customers to pay merchants with bank accounts from different banks across the country.

Building financial literacy

A key priority was helping entrepreneurs establish a solid understanding of money management. The banking platform contained embedded videos providing educational content on financial life stages, priorities, saving for the future, and instructions in both Twi and English on how to perform banking transactions.

“The videos helped me understand how to manage money and be more confident with my banking.”

Accelerating financial inclusion

The new Sinapi Aba digital banking platform provides access to over 400,000 entrepreneurs in Ghana on their mobile devices. Now, they can connect with bank staff, gain financial literacy, and have convenient access to pay bills and manage their finances.