Akiba Bank — Case Study

Overview

Akiba Bank — Benki Ya Mkulima ("The Farmer's Bank") — is a Kenyan financial institution built around a single audience: the farmer. From smallholder agripreneurs to large-scale livestock operators, the brand needed to earn trust with a market traditional banking has historically underserved.

The engagement covered full brand identity, buyer persona research, mobile app UX for the bank's digital product, and a 12-week social-led campaign to launch it.

The Brief

Two buyer personas anchored every decision: Mary, a young agribusiness entrepreneur applying modern, tech-driven methods to farming, and Nyauma, an experienced livestock farmer balancing tradition with growth. Both shared the same barrier — limited access to financial services built for their reality.

The brand had to read as secure and credible to a regulator-facing audience, while feeling warm and grounded enough to sit naturally in a farming community. The mobile app had to make account access, transfers, and onboarding simple enough for a first-time digital banking user.

Approach

Identity first. A brand mark built from the letter "A" and a grain motif — the wheat sheaf signalling the agricultural sector the bank serves. A three-colour system (dark purple, amber gold, ruby) balanced trust and warmth without tipping into either corporate coldness or over-familiarity.

Then the product. Mobile app UX for onboarding, login, OTP verification, and account management — designed for clarity on a first digital-banking experience, not a power-user interface.

Then the launch. A 12-week, three-phase social campaign built around a car giveaway incentive, farmer-generated content, and an influencer and webinar series to drive both downloads and financial literacy.

Brand Identity & Guidelines Buyer Persona Research Mobile App UX 12-Week Launch Campaign UGC & Influencer Strategy Promo Video Storyboard

The Work

Brand system. A logo built on the initial "A" and a grain vector, in dark purple, amber gold, and ruby red — designed to work across signage, cards, cheques, and digital surfaces with a strict safe-area and placement system.

App UX. Full onboarding flow — sign-up, OTP verification, login, forgotten-password recovery, and an account dashboard showing balances, cards, and quick actions — built for a farmer opening a digital banking app for the first time.

Campaign. "Sow, Grow, Harvest" — a theme carried across a 12-week content calendar, a car-giveaway mechanic under #FutureFarmsWithAkiba, and a UGC and influencer push in the campaign's second half.

Brand Identity

The mark reads as a roofline and a rising path — the "A" built from three receding bands, meeting a grain sheaf at its base. Dark purple (#3B1F2B) carries the weight of trust and security; amber gold (#FFBE0A) signals the agricultural sector directly; ruby red (#D81E5B) is reserved for calls-to-action and highlights only.

Mango#FFBE0A

Dark Purple#3B1F2B

Ruby#D81E5B

Mobile App — Onboarding & UX

Welcome

Sign Up

Sign Up 2

OTP Verify

Login

Forgot Password

Dashboard

Account Details

Campaign Strategy

The launch ran across three overlapping phases — a two-week teaser and countdown, a core awareness push introducing app features and financial-education content, and a UGC and influencer phase built around real farmers using the product.

A grand-prize vehicle giveaway sat at the centre of the mechanic, driving sign-ups without reducing the campaign to a competition — every touchpoint paired the incentive with genuine app education: tutorial videos, feature walkthroughs, and a farmer-led testimonial series.

#FutureFarmsWithAkiba "Grow with Akiba, Harvest Success" Email Nurture Series SEO & Website Content Press & Media Relations

Outcome

Full brand identity system shipped — logo, colour, typography, and usage guidelines built for both digital and print application
Complete app UX flow designed — from first sign-up through OTP verification, login, recovery, and account management
12-week integrated campaign spanning social, email, SEO, PR, and influencer channels around a single launch moment
Buyer-persona-led design — every decision traced back to Mary and Nyauma's real financial barriers, not assumptions
A measurement framework covering app downloads, campaign engagement, and post-launch sentiment across every channel used

If this is you

If you're building for a market the big banks overlook, a generic brand won't earn trust. I give you one that speaks your customers' language and still holds its own in a boardroom.