Why are you participating for Based Africa?

As a team deeply committed to fostering solutions that address real-world challenges, OffGrid Labs’s participation in Based Africa stems from a genuine belief in the transformative potential of blockchain technology. Our motivation is grounded in a desire to empower local communities with tools that bridge financial divides and promote economic inclusivity.

SME's are the backbone of the African economy and yet are the least targeted with respect to financial credit. OffGrid Labs presents, Shika Wallet , an offline system that enables SME's and Farmers that are unbanked to build credit scores by engaging in group savings . In the cycle of group savings one person is at one point a lender and another a borrower. As a result, data stored on chain can provider data backed credit scores to Financial Service providers. We imagine a world were any African can walk into any financial institution and get credit by giving their National ID card number to the Financial service provider. We imagine a world where the Financial service providers know how much credit to give an individual based on data that is tamper proof .

What challenges are you focusing on?

A Personal Story
Growing up in Ghana, I witnessed my grandma, a successful market trader, get rejected for a small business loan despite running her business profitably for over 15 years. Her story is not unique. Every day, millions of hardworking Africans who demonstrate incredible financial responsibility are excluded from credit financing tools.

The Core Problems:
Data Gaps:Over 68% of Africa's adult population remains unbanked
Traditional credit scoring systems completely miss informal financial activities
Daily financial transactions worth billions occur offline and remain unrecorded
Group savings mechanisms (susu) manage significant capital but aren't recognized by formal systems
Infrastructure Failure

Banks can't assess creditworthiness without standardized data
Existing credit scoring models don't account for African financial behaviors
No bridge exists between offline financial activities and formal credit systems
Traditional FICO-style scoring fails in markets where most transactions are informal

Economic Impact

Small businesses can't access working capital despite proven business models
Farmers with successful harvests can't get loans for expansion
Market traders with daily cash flows can't build formal credit histories
Group savings participants can't leverage their saving habits for formal credit

Technology Mismatch

Most solutions require internet access in a predominantly offline environment
Mobile money data remains siloed and unutilized for credit scoring
Blockchain solutions often ignore the reality of offline transactions
Existing systems don't capture the complexity of group financial behaviors

Current System Limitations

No standardized way to verify informal income
Group saving habits aren't factored into creditworthiness
Cash-based transactions leave no

How does your submission address this challenge?

Our solution creates a comprehensive credit scoring infrastructure by:

Starting Offline First

Deployed a USSD system ("920157#") accessible on any mobile phone in Ghana
Captures financial behavior without requiring internet connectivity
Meets users where they are technologically
Zero barriers to entry for the average African user
Digitizing Group Savings (Susu)
Transforms traditional group saving mechanisms into digital credit data
Records contribution consistency and group participation
Validates informal income through peer verification
Creates financial history through community participation

Building Trust Through Community
Leverages existing social structures for credit validation
Uses group dynamics to ensure accountability
Creates a network effect for financial data collection
Reduces risk through community verification
Data Migration Pipeline
Seamlessly moves offline transactions to blockchain infrastructure
Creates immutable financial records from informal activities
Bridges the gap between offline behavior and digital credit scoring
Enables data portability across financial institutions
Standardized Credit Scoring
Develops credit scores based on actual African financial behaviors
Includes alternative data points relevant to local contexts
Creates comparable metrics across different regions
Enables financial institutions to make informed lending decisions

Implementation Strategy

User Onboarding

Simple USSD registration
Group formation and validation
Initial financial behavior tracking

Data Collection

Daily transaction recording
Group savings participation
Payment consistency tracking
Peer-to-peer lending history

Credit Profile Building

Progressive history development
Behavioral pattern analysis
Risk assessment modeling
Score calculation and updates

Challenges I ran into

Lessons Learned

Start Where People Are

Building for basic phones was crucial
USSD, despite limitations, proved most accessible
Offline-first approach was the right decision

Community First, Technology Second

Social structures matter more than technical features
Trust building takes time but is essential
Local champions are key to adoption

Iteration is Key

Started small with core features
Added complexity based on user feedback
Continuous adaptation to local needs

Additional Note: The devfolio site did not allow us to add the team members after we clicked submit for judging ahead of time to make edits. We are a team of 6

Additional Features

We concluded the offline build and included a dummy mobile version as well as a dashboard for the banks and credit provision institutions.