Ghana - Business creation project

Décrivez votre projet en quelques mots

We have developed an app for informal traders to do their financial accounting using tribal languages and voice-over to assist people with limited schooling to improve their business decisions

01.01 Décrivez votre projet en détail

We have built an app to allow informal traders and independent artisans delivering services in the West-African economy to keep track of their finances, debtors and creditors. As we are working for the informal sector we see that many people do not have strong literacy or knowledge of English so we supply them with a user interface where they can choose from various tribal languages and voice over to guide them. At the same time, behind the scenes our app works as an entire financial accounting system including balance, and profit and loss table. The app allows traders and artisans to follow up on their incoming and outgoing payments and send people reminders when they owe them. Tests with the app show that it really helps people in the informal sector to grow their businesses and get out of poverty.

01.02 Quel est le problème principal que vous essayez de résoudre ?

Informal traders and artisans are hustling and working very hard to making a living for themselves and their (extended) families. Managing their business usually happens intuitively, where they keep track of finances in a notebook or in their head. As a result they do not have accurate information on the profitability of their different business activities and may take sub-optimal decisions. Also keeping track of debtors and reminding them consistently of paying their bills is not being done in a way that optimize their benefits. In short, they do not keep good records of where their money is going. By solving this, better decision making and higher profitablitily can be obtained.

01.03 Dites-nous quels sont les principaux avantages et/ou bénéfices de l'utilisation du produit/service que vous souhaitez fournir par votre projet (au moins 3).

• Our app helps your informal business to keep track the money • It talks to you in your tribal language • It is super easy to use, as your accountant is hidden inside the app

01.04 Veuillez décrire précisément à qui s'adressera le produit/service de votre projet. Quels sont les bénéficiaires visés ?

We target the tens of millions of informal traders and artisans in ECOWAS starting in Ghana where the app is available in • Twi • Ewe • Ga • Hausa

01.05 Quand avez-vous commencé à travailler sur votre projet ?

01/11/2023

01.06 Combien y a-t-il de propriétaires sur votre projet en plus de vous ?

3

01.07 Parmi les autres propriétaires, combien sont des femmes ?

1

01.08 Veuillez décrire le profil des autres propriétaires de votre projet (compétences, expérience, etc.).

I am the founder of the company and I am currently employing a marketing staff (young professoinal) and the software development of our app has been outsourced to Trinity Software Center in Kumasi, where a team of 4 developers is working on the finalization of the app. to be soon launched on the Playstore. In our team we are being mentored by two senior angel investors: Diana van der Stelt; https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianavanderstelt/ Barima Acheampong Sarpong; a former senior procurement consultant with the central government and an investor in various companies and startups. He is an entrepreneur who has established the following companies: Zeotec Limited, a manufacturing company; Aca-City Farms, a Commercial farm; Pathos AIB Limited, a manufacturing company; Biazo Realtors, a real estate company. Pathos Agro Limited, a Commercial farm; and AFMREC, a natural resources research firm etc.

01.09 Si vous avez un site web, une page sur les médias sociaux (Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin...) ou une application, veuillez fournir le(s) lien(s) ici :

https://odwadiniapp.com/

01.10 Quel est le secteur d'activité qui décrit le mieux votre projet ?

g) Services financiers

02.01.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Pas de pauvreté'

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

02.01.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

Millions of informal traders and artisans are trying to make a living struggling to survive with their small businesses in Ecowas. We believe our solution will help to do take better business decisions hence more revenues and profitabillity and resources to feed themselves and their familiies.

02.02.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Faim Zéro'

5

02.02.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

When informal traders and artisans have more successful business that have the resources to decently feed their families and have access to health care. These are people at the bottom of the social ladder.

02.03.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Bonne Santé et Bien Être'

5

02.03.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

When informal traders and artisans have more successful business that have the resources to decently feed their families and have access to health care. These are people at the bottom of the social ladder.

02.04.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Éducaiton de Qualité'

4

02.04.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

Our app educates people in the field of financial management. It takes into account that there our target group has limited education and needs help in their tribal language.

02.05.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Égalité entre les Sexes'

6

02.05.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

Our app is not directly targeting women but from our test rounds with an earlier version of the app we know that 1. a lot of traders are women and they will benefit from this solution 2. women are relatively more inclined than men to keep records and organize themselves well so we are expecting that they will benefit more from our solution.

02.06.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Eau Propre et Assainissement'

3

02.06.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

02.07.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Énergie Propre et Abordable'

4

02.07.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

02.08.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Travail Décent et Croissance Économique'

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

02.08.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

We help informal traders and artisans to grow their businesses, make more money and enter the formal market place.

02.09.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Industrie, Innovaiton et Infrastructure'

5

02.09.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

We aim to promote digital inclusiveness among the informal sector players. Develop a system and training programs where the informal sector players will be innovative in their financial record-keeping and decision-making.

02.10.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Réduction des Inégalités'

5

02.10.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

We are targeting those who struggle in the informal sector to help them lift themselves up.

02.11.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Villes et Communautés Durables'

4

02.11.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

02.12.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Consommation et Production Responsable'

3

02.12.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

02.13.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Luttle contre les Changements Climatiques'

4

02.13.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

02.14.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Vie Sous-Marine'

2

02.14.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

02.15.01 Mon projetp contribue à l'objectif 'Vie Terrestre'

2

02.15.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

02.16.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Paix, Justice et Institutions Efficaces'

4

02.16.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

02.17.01 Mon projet contribue à l'objectif 'Parteneriats pour la Réalisation des Objectifs'

6

02.17.02 Justification de la contribution de mon projet

In an earlier startup venture, we tried to push our ideas to individual traders but we realized that it is too costly and cumbersome to get to them on an individual basis. So that project stopped 2 years ago. We have now decided to start all over and work together with other institutions such as branch organizations, banks and micro finance institutions as well as influencers and financial advisors who are targeting SME in ECOWAS. The first parties are already showing interest. So we thing we will look for strong partnerships to get our APP into the market with as many informal traders and artisans as possible.

05.01 Il existe un grand nombre de clients qui utilisent déjà un produit/service très similaire à celui que nous envisageons de créer.

2

05.02 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer représente un type de produit/service entièrement nouveau

3

05.03 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer pourrait être décrit comme une nouvelle technologie

4

05.04 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer est une amélioration d'un produit ou d'un service existant

2

05.05 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer pourrait être décrit comme une extension d'une gamme de produits ou de services

2

05.06 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer répond à une demande ou à un besoin qui n'a pas été satisfait par d'autres produits/services.

7 - Tout à fait d'accord

05.07 Le produit/service que nous voulons créer est une nouvelle version d'un ancien produit/service

3

05.08 Justification de mon projet

Yes, informal traders and artisans have done bookkeeping in physical note books. And there are several financial accounting applications on the market in ECOWAS targeting SME. But as far as we know we are the only party offering an application that targets informal businesses who do not have laptops, and struggle with literacy as well as English/French because these business owners have had only limited schooling.

05.09 Qui sont vos principaux potentiels concurrents et qu'est-ce qui vous différencie d'eux ?

- Oze - KudiGo With Odwadini App, even the less educated can formally keep accurate financial records and make sound financial decisions for growth; a value proposition that none of our competitors provide. The basic user interface and voice guide in a user's tribal language help in all-inclusiveness. We also plan in-person financial literacy clinics that give more guidance and direction to out target customers.

10.06 Menez-vous des actions au sein de votre communauté pour promouvoir le rôle des femmes entrepreneurs ?

Yes when we started with a pilot project we particularly targeted female enterpreneurs with various shops