PanelPay · Mobile fintech

Every digital errand, one wallet

PanelPay puts foreign numbers, eSIMs, social boosts, subscription gifts, virtual cards, gift cards and bill payments behind one naira and dollar wallet. I designed the app end to end, from first launch to the receipt.

50k+users on the platform

15+services behind one naira and dollar wallet

4 monthsto take most services live

1checkout pattern reused in every flow

Onboarding screen introducing rented numbers for OTP verification

Home screen with NGN and USD balances, quick access and recent transactions

Services screen with shortcuts, recently used and all services

eSIM screen listing active plans by country

My role: Lead Product Designer
Deliverables: Product structure
High-fidelity mobile design (light and dark)
Email, push and app store assets
Duration: 4 months to launch most services, with new ones added since

Context

The product wasn't one service. It was fifteen errands.

A lot of everyday digital life in Nigeria runs through foreign platforms. You need a US number to verify a WhatsApp Business or Telegram account. You need a dollar card to pay for a subscription. You want followers on a new Instagram page, a Snapchat+ gift for a friend, or data that works when you land in another country.

Each of those jobs usually means a different website or vendor, a different payment method, and a bank transfer to someone you have to trust. PanelPay's idea was to put all of them behind one wallet that holds both naira and dollars.

The risk was obvious from the start. Fifteen services can easily become fifteen apps sharing one login.

My job was to make the breadth feel simple. A first-time user had to understand what PanelPay was within a few screens. A returning user had to be able to try a new service without learning a new way to pay.

Discovery

Understanding the problem before defining the solution

The core question was simple: what does it take today for someone in Nigeria to rent a number, buy an eSIM, pay for a foreign subscription or boost a page, and where does it break? Discovery ran in four streams: desk research on the market, a review of the products people already use, conversations with target users, and interviews with the PanelPay team about goals and support.

Desk research

A market shaped by the dollar

The naira fell from about ₦449 to ₦899 per dollar between 2022 and 2023. During that crisis, GTBank, Zenith, First Bank and Standard Chartered stopped international transactions on naira cards. When some banks restored access in 2025, GTBank capped it at $1,000 per quarter.

That pushed everyday foreign spending (Netflix, ChatGPT, Canva, app subscriptions) onto virtual dollar cards and informal vendors. Number rental, meanwhile, depended on overseas platforms. When SMS-Activate, one of the largest, shut down at the end of 2025, users lost access to their balances overnight.

For our users, the hard part wasn't finding a service. It was finding one they could pay for in naira and trust with their money.

Competitive review

Six categories, at least six different apps

Before PanelPay, covering the same jobs meant using at least one specialist product per category. I reviewed the leading option in each, plus their store reviews and Trustpilot pages, looking for what to copy and what to avoid.

Job	Products reviewed	What works	Where it breaks
Rent a number for OTP	SMS-Activate, 5sim, SMSPool	Huge country and app coverage, pay per code	Crypto or card top-ups only, dense dashboards, no naira, balances lost on shutdown
Travel data	Airalo, Holafly	Simple install, plans grouped by country	Dollar card required; support complaints when a plan won't connect
Foreign subscriptions	Grey, Chipper Cash, Geegpay	Instant virtual USD cards	1–3% FX markup, maintenance and decline fees, single-purpose apps
Gift cards	Cardtonic, Prestmit	Fast naira payouts, brand catalogue	Built for selling cards, not buying them
Bills and airtime	OPay, PalmPay	Trusted, fast, everyone already has one	Local services only, nothing in dollars
Social growth	SMM panels sold on Telegram and WhatsApp	Cheap and fast when they work	Pay a stranger by transfer, no order status, no refunds

Two patterns stood out. The specialist apps were trusted for one job each, but none of them accepted naira for dollar services. And the services with the worst trust problems (numbers and boosts) were the ones people bought most often.

User research

Conversations with people who already buy these services

I spoke remotely with regular buyers in Lagos and Abuja who had bought at least two of these services in the last three months: social media managers, remote workers paid in dollars, and students running small online businesses. Each person walked through their most recent purchase step by step, sharing screenshots where they had them.

Walk me through the last time you bought a number, boost or subscription. Where did you start?
How did you pay, and how did you know the payment went through?
What happened when the order was late or didn't work?
How many different apps or vendors do you use for these things today?
If one app did all of this, what would make you trust it with your money?

Key insights

Receipts were screenshots. People kept proof of payment in their camera roll because vendors gave them nothing else.
Trust came before price. Most would pay a little more to a known app over a cheaper vendor they'd have to transfer money to.
Order status was a black box. Nobody could tell whether a boost had started or whether a rented number was still live.
Everyone thought in two currencies. They checked the dollar price, then the naira cost, then the rate, before every purchase.
First-time use needed hand-holding. eSIM installs and number verification went wrong mostly on the first try.

Stakeholder research

Business goals

Sessions with the founders and operations lead set four goals the design had to serve:

Grow wallet funding. Revenue came from margins on each service, so a funded wallet was the start of every sale.
Cross-sell. Someone who arrived to rent a number should find eSIMs, cards and boosts without being sold to.
Ship services fast. New services had to launch in weeks, without redesigning navigation each time.
Stay compliant. Higher limits and dollar features had to sit behind KYC, without blocking a first purchase.

Support load

What people were contacting support about

A review of support chats and the operations team's notes grouped requests into four themes. Each became a design requirement.

Request	Root cause	Design response
"I've paid but my wallet isn't funded"	Bank transfers with no confirmation step	Dedicated account details, minimums shown up front, "I have made payment" confirmation, push notification on credit
"My number didn't get the code"	No visibility into the number's state or expiry	Order ID, status pill and remaining time on every rental
"Has my boost started?"	Orders run in batches with no feedback	Processing, Active and Scheduled states, plus order history
"How do I install the eSIM?"	First-time setup with no guidance	Tutorial video pinned to the top of each service page

Synthesis

From findings to design principles

One wallet, one way to pay. Every service checks out the same way, so trust built in one flow carries to the next.
Status is part of the product. Every order gets an ID, a status and a history.
Show the rate before the money moves. Naira and dollar values sit side by side wherever money changes hands.
Teach in place. Tutorials live on the page where they're needed, not in a help centre.
Grow without reshuffling. New services slot into one directory instead of changing the home screen.

Sources for desk research

Target audience

The people behind the pain points

Two composite personas drawn from research kept the design honest. When a decision was unclear, we asked which of them it would help.

Tolu, 26

Social media manager running pages for four small brands

Opens new accounts for clients every month and needs them verified and growing fast. Buys numbers and boosts weekly, usually from different vendors.

Pain points

Pays strangers by bank transfer with no guarantee of delivery
Can't tell whether a boost has started or stalled
Numbers expire mid-verification with no warning
Tracks orders across screenshots and chat threads

Kemi, 33

Remote product manager paid in dollars, based in Lagos

Earns in USD and spends in both currencies. Pays for software subscriptions, travels a few times a year and handles the family's bills.

Pain points

Local cards get declined on foreign subscriptions
Buys a local SIM in every country she visits
Loses value moving between naira and dollars
Uses one app for bills and another for everything else

The design

From first launch to first receipt

Each part of the app answers one of the findings above. The journey below follows a new user from the splash screen to their first completed order.

Onboarding and sign up

Show what PanelPay does before asking for anything

The onboarding carousel uses real product UI instead of illustrations, so the first thing people see is an active rented number, not a slogan. Sign up offers Google, Apple or email. A four-digit transaction PIN with Face ID is set up immediately, because every payment later depends on it.

Home screen

Both currencies in view, all the time

Naira and dollar balances sit side by side with Transfer, Deposit and Swap directly underneath. Quick Access holds the eight most used services, The Suite Corner carries announcements, and recent transactions are grouped by day with signed amounts.

New accounts see a KYC prompt in place of the transaction list, so the next step is always on screen.

Services

A directory that can keep growing

Every service lives on one Services screen in three layers: shortcuts the user picks for Home, Recently Used, and All. New services launch here with a "Soon" badge, so the roadmap is visible without crowding the screens people use every day.

Mobile top-up with network and amount presets

Add money and swap

Rates and minimums before anything moves

Funding offers bank transfer, card and crypto, each with its minimum deposit stated up front. Swap shows the live rate and both wallet balances, and the button stays disabled until the amount is valid.

Select payment method with minimum deposits

Checkout

One way to pay, everywhere

Whether someone is sending $200 or buying a 500GB eSIM, payment follows the same three steps: a review sheet that restates the recipient, amount and wallet; the transaction PIN; and a receipt they can share. Learning it once makes every new service feel familiar.

Orders and tracking

Status is part of the product

Boosts, eSIMs, numbers and SMS codes share one page layout: a tutorial link at the top, Active and History tabs, an order ID and status pill on every card, and one button to start a new order. A push notification confirms each completed order, even with the phone locked.

Lockscreen notification for a completed order

Cards, gift cards and gifting

Explaining the cost before asking for it

Virtual cards open with what the card is for, its $2 creation fee and its limits, before the user commits. Gift cards are browsable by category with price ranges on every tile. The Gift Center explains how Telegram, X and Snapchat subscriptions are delivered, since they arrive outside PanelPay.

Outcome and reflection

What shipping fifteen services looked like

Before PanelPay, these purchases were spread across vendors with no shared wallet, tracking or receipts. Because every service reused the same checkout and order page, most services went live within four months, and the platform has since grown to more than 50,000 users.