Seventy percent of digital tools across Africa remain unused after onboarding because they fail to meet the real needs of customers.
This is according to Sandisiwe "Siwe" Yengeni, senior manager of client experience and insights at African Bank.
Speaking at the ITWeb CX Summit 2025 hosted in Modderfontein, Sandton, recently, Yengeni said companies often prioritise keeping up with technology trends over designing solutions that work for their intended users.
According to Yengeni, while over 80% of South Africans have bank accounts, around 40% still receive wages in cash, pointing to low usage of digital channels – despite high account ownership.
“Personalisation without empathy is actually just exclusion at scale,” she said. “We are building nice things that mean nothing to our customers.”
She called for designing for dignity or developing solutions that are inclusive and tailored to specific markets instead of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.
"What does designing for dignity mean? We understand the theory of it, which is about how you prioritise human needs, inclusion and trust. But do we apply it? When you're building your different design elements, think about who that audience is," Yengeni said.
She emphasised that no one benefits when technology is created for the sake of keeping up. “Of course technology is moving, but so what if technology is moving and you're just moving the technology without actually matching it to the needs of the people that you're building for?”
Citing examples from Kenya, Mexico and India, Yengeni highlighted how context-driven solutions and using existing infrastructure, such as biometrics and USSD codes, have successfully expanded financial inclusion in underserved communities. “You're leveraging existing infrastructure, you're thinking about the users that you've got, and you're solving with those dynamics in mind. And what happened with M-Pesa? We know that 96% of Kenyan households now use mobile money as a result of it.
“Designing for dignity is not charity, it's not a luxury, it’s sensible business,” she added, arguing that empathetic design leads to higher product adoption, stronger trust and customer loyalty.
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