Ni tipped ITO nanowires (NWs) have been prepared by state-of-the-art method and used as a base layer for NiO/ZnO UV detector. The enhanced opto-electrical properties of the fabricated UV detector were systematically analysed. Ni islands were used as a template to forming vertically grown ITO NWs. The prepared NiO/ZnO/ITO NW UV detector exhibited more than 80% transmittance in the visible and NIR regions. However, as the UV radiation was completely utilized by the device, the transmittance in the UV region was least. The photoconduction mechanism including Schottky contact between NiO and ZnO layers were studied by I-V characteristics and Mott-Schottky analysis. The device showed the lowest reverse saturation current of 0.59 nA, showing good junction quality. The detector showed excellent UV photoresponse time of 7.05 ms. It is suggested that the optical and electrical properties of an UV detector could be enhanced by incorporating the Ni tipped ITO NWs. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.