Basewallet, one app for money, mobility, and lifestyle

A lot of global fintech misses local reality

Basewallet exists because FX, mobility, and trust aren't separate problems for the people it's built for, they're intertwined. Travelling with cash is stressful and unsafe, and even when someone tries to go fully digital, the tools available often don't line up: unclear exchange rates, low trust in new apps, and lifestyle services scattered across providers that don't talk to each other.

I designed the mobile app end-to-end, not one feature, the whole thing, from the core wallet and card flows through to gift cards, travel bookings, insurance, and bank linking, expanding the product well beyond "just payments."

Taking ownership of the whole app

I worked in the same end-to-end capacity on Basewallet as I did across the rest of the Apex ecosystem, partnering with the CTO and engineering to take the product from a narrower payments tool into a genuine lifestyle platform. That meant owning the UX and UI direction for the wallet foundation, every payment flow, and each new feature added on top, while making sure the app stayed coherent instead of turning into a pile of disconnected tabs.

The bar wasn't "add more features." It was: does this still feel like one calm, trustworthy app, even as it does more?

Home & Wallets, earning trust in the boring moments

Before Pay, before the Hub, the wallet had to answer three questions fast: what do I have, where is it held, and what can I do with it right now? Home is designed as a calm anchor, total balance and currency wallets up top, with quick actions to Add Money or Transfer sitting right where users reach for them, and the Hub's lifestyle offers kept lower so they never compete with the basics.

Home, total balance, NGN & GHS wallets, Deposit and Transfer front and centre.

Home, full view, Add Money and Transfer as the two clear primary actions, offers below.

Single wallet, Add Money, Transfer, and Convert sit close, with transaction history right below.

Creating a new currency wallet was designed to feel like a light, reversible step rather than a commitment, so users don't overthink adding one just to explore.

Create wallet, clear benefits shown before commitment, so adding a currency feels low-stakes.

One entry point, multiple rails

Basewallet supports several ways to send money, Basepals (wallet-to-wallet), bank transfer, and mobile money, but users shouldn't have to relearn the product every time they send. I treated Pay as a single surface: search or pick a recent contact, then choose the rail that fits, so it feels like one action with a few routes rather than three separate features.

Pay, recent recipients up top, filterable by Basepals, Banks, MOMO, or Others.

Recipient detail, a lightweight sheet keeps Transfer one tap away without leaving context.

Add Recipient, one decision point routes into whichever rail the user needs.

Expansion without turning into an app drawer

People already use their wallet as a base for daily life, airtime, bills, gift cards, and travel are all more useful sitting close to where their balance already lives. The risk with adding all of that is clutter, so the Hub is structured around intent (Gift Cards, Bills, Life Style) rather than internal feature names, and it stays a layer users dip into, never something that hijacks the core wallet experience.

Hub, Gift Cards and Bills grouped by what the user is trying to do, not by team ownership.

Bills & Life Style, airtime, internet, and lifestyle services sit in the same scannable grid.

Life Style, eSIM, Visa, Stays, Flight, Insurance, Lounges, and Fast Track, one consistent tile pattern.

Making movement feel prepared, not chaotic

Travel is one of the places fragmentation hurts the most, flights, stays, lounges, visas, and connectivity are usually five separate apps. Inside Basewallet, each of these is designed around the same idea: search, see what matters, then pay with any wallet already in the account. No new payment method to set up, no separate login.

Flights, clear fares and instant booking, paid from any wallet in the account.

Stays, homes and hotels, with flexible book-now-pay-later options.

Lounges, quick reassurance on access and comfort before a flight, purchasable by the hour or day.

Visa, a guided route (from country → to country) instead of a confusing form.

eSIM, instant data on landing, no physical SIM swap required.

Fast Track, a Dragonpass QR pass generated directly inside the wallet.

Make gifting feel intentional, not like a checkout puzzle

Vouchers can get confusing fast, what exactly am I buying, who's it for, how do they redeem it? I designed the flow so users always know three things: what the voucher is for, who receives it, and what happens after purchase, with delivery treated as part of the product experience rather than an afterthought.

Voucher home, a received gift surfaces immediately, with categories organised for browsing, not just transacting.

Reveal moment, receiving a gift is treated as a small delight, not a plain notification.

Trust is built in receipts and statuses

In a money app, history isn't a nice-to-have, it's how people reassure themselves that something worked, or prove it to someone else. Every entry needed a clear title, a familiar category, and a status ("Pending," "Completed") that never felt vague. Tapping into any transaction opens a receipt-style breakdown: what was sent, the fee, the recipient, and a transaction ID users can copy or share as proof.

History, filterable by status, type, wallet, and date, built to stay scannable even on busy accounts.

Transaction detail, amount sent, fee, recipient, note, and a copyable transaction ID, laid out like a receipt.

Expansion without clutter

Keep the wallet as the centre

Every new feature, travel, gift cards, insurance, was designed as a layer users dip into when it's relevant, not something competing with the core wallet for attention. That's what let the app grow without feeling like a feature dump.

Premium doesn't mean complicated

The whole point of Basewallet is that a premium financial experience shouldn't require a learning curve. Every feature had to clear the same bar: does this still feel like the same calm app the user already trusts?

Full ownership changes what you notice

Designing every part of the app, not just the flashy features, meant I was accountable for how the boring parts (deposits, statements, bank linking) held up too. That's often where trust is actually won or lost.