Design is not decoration—it’s a business function. Emmanuel Thikan Pere’s story proves it.
In the fast-moving world of African fintech, where user acquisition costs are rising and competition for wallet share is fierce, the companies that win are those that make every interaction count. For Lagos-based fintech startup Traddify Africa Innovation Limited, that realisation came with a 35% increase in annual revenue—driven not by a new funding round or a flashy marketing campaign, but by a dashboard redesign.
The architect behind that transformation is Emmanuel Thikan Pere, a Senior Product Designer who joined Traddify in 2020 and has since become instrumental in shaping the company’s user experience across its cross-border payments, remittance, and SME financing products.
Traddify, which has processed over 150,000 transactions worth more than $5.1 million across its 10,000-plus user base, was growing. But with growth came complexity. The company’s internal analytics dashboard—the nerve centre for operational decision-making—had become a bottleneck.
“The existing dashboard presented data in a way that required users to interpret multiple screens before making decisions. Internal teams were spending unnecessary time on manual reporting, and traders struggled to get actionable insights quickly.”
— Emmanuel Thikan Pere
For a fintech handling cross-border payments, where speed and accuracy are paramount, this friction was costing the business—in time, in errors, and ultimately, in revenue.
Emmanuel’s approach was methodical. Rather than jumping straight into wireframes, he began with user research—interviewing traders, operations staff, and finance team members to understand what decisions they actually needed to make and what information they needed to make them.
“I restructured the information architecture to surface the most critical data first. I simplified the visual hierarchy so patterns and anomalies were immediately visible. The goal was to turn complicated data into something clearer, usable, and actionable.”
— Emmanuel Thikan Pere
The redesign touched everything from the layout of key performance indicators to the colour coding of transaction statuses. Navigation was streamlined. Redundant steps were eliminated. The result was a dashboard that did not just look better—it worked better.
The impact was measurable. Following the dashboard overhaul in 2024, Traddify recorded a 35% increase in annual revenue. Teams reported faster decision-making cycles. Support requests related to dashboard confusion dropped. Transaction processing times improved.
Gold Sylvester, Traddify’s CEO and Founder, has been vocal about the role design has played in the company’s growth trajectory.
“Emmanuel’s dashboard redesign was instrumental in our 2024 growth. It wasn’t just a visual upgrade—it fundamentally changed how our teams operate and how quickly we can respond to market opportunities.”
— Gold Sylvester, CEO, Traddify Africa Innovation Limited
Emmanuel’s story challenges a persistent misconception in the African tech ecosystem: that design is a nice-to-have, a cosmetic layer added after the “real” product work is done.
“Design isn’t decoration—it’s a business function that directly impacts revenue. Nigerian startups should view UX investment as strategic, not optional. Good design reduces friction, and reduced friction means more completed transactions.”
— Emmanuel Thikan Pere
The evidence supports this view. Research from the Design Management Institute shows that design-led companies outperform the S&P 500 by 219% over ten years. McKinsey’s Design Index found that companies in the top quartile for design performance increased their revenues at nearly twice the rate of their industry counterparts.
Yet in Africa’s startup ecosystem, design talent often remains undervalued and under-resourced. Emmanuel’s experience at Traddify offers a counter-narrative—a case study in what happens when design is given a seat at the strategy table.
Emmanuel, who holds an MSc in Digital Marketing Communications & Design from Manchester Metropolitan University, is not resting on this success. Beyond his work at Traddify, he has been involved in projects ranging from BuyTrade, a social-trading application connecting retail traders with professionals, to Project Creek, a UX research initiative examining environmental challenges in Nigeria’s Niger Delta.
His long-term vision is to contribute to a future where digital products across Africa are inclusive, intuitive, and designed with genuine empathy for users—particularly in markets where technology is still evolving.
“My goal is to play a role in reducing digital complexity, improving accessibility across different backgrounds, and creating products that empower people—especially in places where technology is still underserved.”
— Emmanuel Thikan Pere
For African startups watching their user acquisition costs rise and their retention rates plateau, Emmanuel’s story offers a simple but powerful lesson: sometimes the best investment you can make isn’t in another marketing channel or feature launch. Sometimes, it’s in a designer who understands that every pixel is a business decision.
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Emmanuel Thikan Pere is a Senior Product Designer at Traddify Africa Innovation Limited.
Connect with him on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thikanemmanuel
