Merchant Onboarding
& KYC Platform

Overview

When a merchant signs up to Paystack, they go through a mandatory KYC process before they can receive payments. In 2018, this process was slow, opaque, and largely manual — merchants didn't know where they were in the process, and compliance teams worked from a basic spreadsheet to track document status.

I designed both sides of this: the merchant-facing onboarding flow and the internal admin tool used by compliance teams to review, approve, and flag applications.

Problem

Merchants frequently contacted support asking where they were in the verification process. Compliance teams had no efficient way to bulk-review applications, filter by risk tier, or communicate rejections with structured reasons. Time-to-live for new merchants was measured in days, not hours.

Process

• Shadowed compliance analysts during document review sessions
• Mapped the merchant journey from sign-up to first payment
• Identified 6 points of friction in the existing flow
• Designed progressive disclosure onboarding — collecting only what's needed at each stage
• Built admin review UI with priority queuing and structured rejection reasons
• Ran usability tests with compliance team before handoff

Design Decisions

The merchant-facing flow uses progressive disclosure — rather than presenting a long form, each stage asks only for what's needed at that moment. A persistent progress indicator shows merchants where they are and what's still required.

The admin tool introduced a priority queue — high-risk applications surfaced at the top, with clear risk signal tags. Rejection reasons were structured rather than free-text, which both reduced analyst effort and gave merchants clearer guidance on what to fix.