Democratic Republic of Congo

I. Executive Summary<ul><li>Project Overview&nbsp;: "Likuta" microfinance application for the African market, focusing on basic necessities and development products rather than cash.</li><li>Main objectives&nbsp;: Create a tool for the daily control of products sold on credit and the management of daily customer payments. The application must also optimize workflows between the different stakeholders (management, delegates, agents, customers) and provide accurate monitoring of operations.</li><li>Key players in the ecosystem&nbsp;: Management, back office, delegates, agents and customers.</li></ul>II. Analysis of Needs and Functionalities<ul><li>1. Back Office (Direction)</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Role Description&nbsp;: The back office is the "mother house" of control and information, having access and the ability to act on the entire system.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Required features&nbsp;:</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Reports and analyses: number of products, sales trends, dynamic areas, ranking of delegates and agents, turnover, gross/net profit.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Payment management: validation of receipts, payments to delegates, agents, management and drivers.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Operations control: validation of general orders and deliveries.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Steering dashboard.</li><li>2. Direction</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Role Description&nbsp;: Manages the company, ensures the smooth running of the work process and guarantees effective management of employees.</li><li class="ql-indent-1"> </li><li class="ql-indent-2">Collection and visibility: delegate information, agent figures and data.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Payment validation: validation of payments from agents and delegates.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Dispute management: verification of disputes and bad payers.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Alerts for delegates and agents.</li><li>3. Delegate</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Role Description&nbsp;: Area Manager who supervises agents, handles collection and ensures debt repayment. He acts as a bridge between management and agents.</li><li class="ql-indent-1"> </li><li class="ql-indent-2">Validation of agent orders.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Validation of agent reports.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Alerts for bad payers (customers).</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Visibility into agent turnover.</li><li>4. Agent</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Role Description&nbsp;: Main actor, in charge of finding clients and collecting money on a daily basis. The tool must be as simple as possible.</li><li class="ql-indent-1"> </li><li class="ql-indent-2">Customer management: recording customer identity, taking photos.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Order management: validation of the order and the advance.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Payment tracking: daily collection, alerts for bad customers and customers to collect.</li><li>5. Client</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Role Description&nbsp;: The most important element. It consumes intelligently and pays for its product daily.</li><li class="ql-indent-1"> </li><li class="ql-indent-2">Customer profile.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Order request: right to a maximum of two products initially, with an advance.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Payment tracking: validation of payments (advance and daily payments) with the agent, alerts for payment reminders and late payments with penalties.</li></ul>III. Business Processes and Workflows<ul><li>1. Order and Delivery Process</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The customer makes a request for products.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The agent takes the advance defined by the company.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The agent sends the command to its delegate.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The delegate validates the order and advances it, then transmits the information to management.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Management validates the order and requests payment from the back office.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The back office releases payment for logistics.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Delivery is carried out through control stages, from management to logistics, then to the delegate, to the agent and finally to the customer.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Each actor must validate the order and delivery at each stage.</li><li>2. Payment and Collection Process</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The customer pays a set daily amount.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The agent collects the money daily.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The agent submits his daily report to the delegate before 5:00 p.m.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">The delegate validates the report and the amounts collected.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Payments are forwarded from the delegate to management, then to the back office for final validation.</li></ul>IV. Additional Tools to Develop<ul><li>1. Payment Methods</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Integration of mobile banking for payments between customers, agents, delegates and the company.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Manage cash payments and proof of payment through the app.</li><li>2. Payment of staff</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Calculation and monitoring of commissions and salaries via the application.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Agents: 10% of their turnover.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Delegates: product commissions.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Management and Back office: percentage of profit.</li></ul> VI. Development and Implementation Strategy (Adjustments)<ul><li>1. Choice of Technology (No-code / Low-code)</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Recommended tools&nbsp;: Given your limited budget (less than €1,000) and your desire to use tools like Glide, AppSheet, or Adalo, this is a good choice. These platforms allow you to create functional mobile and web applications without writing code, often relying on spreadsheets like Google Sheets.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Benefits&nbsp;:</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Low Cost&nbsp;: The basic plans of these platforms are often very affordable, or even free for essential features, which respects your budget constraint.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Short timeframe&nbsp;: Creating an MVP in a month is realistic with these tools. The process is faster than traditional development.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">Simplicity&nbsp;: The applications created are lightweight and do not require complex installation, which meets your need for simplicity for agents.</li><li>2. Structuration du MVP (Minimum Viable Product)</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Given the one-month deadline, the MVP should focus on the most critical features to validate the concept in the field. The focus should be on the main stakeholders: Agents and Delegates.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Key features of the MVP:</li><li class="ql-indent-2">For Agents&nbsp;:</li><li class="ql-indent-3">Registration of new customers (identity, photo).</li><li class="ql-indent-3">Validation of the order and customer advance.</li><li class="ql-indent-3">Recording of daily harvest.</li><li class="ql-indent-3">List of customers to collect.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">For Delegates&nbsp;:</li><li class="ql-indent-3">Validation of orders placed by their agents.</li><li class="ql-indent-3">Validation of agents' daily harvest reports.</li><li class="ql-indent-3">Visibility into their agents’ turnover.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">For the Client (simplified interface)&nbsp;:</li><li class="ql-indent-3">Possibility to make an order request.</li><li class="ql-indent-3">Receiving payment validation notifications.</li><li class="ql-indent-3">Payment reminder alert.</li><li class="ql-indent-2">For Management / Back Office (basic dashboard)&nbsp;:</li><li class="ql-indent-3">A dashboard that displays data reported by agents and delegates (sales, payments). Access can be via a web interface to minimize costs and development time.</li><li>3. Local Integration (Kinshasa, DRC)</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Mobile Banking&nbsp;: Integration with local mobile money services is crucial. Platforms like M-Pesa, Orange Money, and Airtel Money are very popular in the DRC. Using no-code tools may require sending SMS confirmations rather than direct integration with banking APIs, which is often more complex and costly. The application should allow the agent to record the mobile money transaction reference as proof of payment.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Simplicity for the field&nbsp;: The application must work with limited internet connectivity and have an intuitive user interface.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Customer Photos&nbsp;: The customer photo feature is a great idea and can be easily integrated into a no-code application to secure customer profiles.</li></ul>VII. Costs and Next Steps<ul><li>Budget (less than €1,000)&nbsp;: The budget will primarily be allocated to the monthly subscription for the no-code platform. Basic plans for a limited user base are often between €20 and €100 per month. The rest of the budget can be used for training or initial support.</li><li>Next Steps&nbsp;:</li></ul><ol><li class="ql-indent-1">Platform Choice&nbsp;: Compare the features and costs of Bolt.new, Lovable, Glide, AppSheet, or Adalo to choose the one that best fits your specific needs.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Data Modeling&nbsp;: Create the data structure (tables) in a spreadsheet (Google Sheets) for customers, orders, payments, agents, and delegates. This is the most crucial step before starting to build the application.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">MVP Development&nbsp;: Build the application focusing on the priority features defined in the MVP plan.</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Field testing&nbsp;: Once the MVP is ready, deploy it with a small group of agents and delegates to test it under real-life conditions in Kinshasa. This will allow for rapid identification of necessary adjustments before a wider rollout.</li><li> </li></ol>

I. Executive Summary Project Overview: Likuta Microfinance Application for the African Market

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