Digitise the Ajo and Esusu: Nigeria's ₦50 Billion Informal Savings Economy

Rotating savings and credit associations are Africa's most trusted financial institution. They are democratic, community-enforced, and have operated for centuries. But they are plagued by treasurer fraud, poor record-keeping, and the social conflict that comes when a member defaults or dies. Dozens of fintech solutions have tried to digitise them and failed by making them too complicated or stripping out the social dynamics that make them work. Your challenge is to design a digital tool for informal savings groups of 10 to 50 members that keeps the human-led structure intact while solving the three main failure modes: fraud, poor records, and default conflicts. The tool must work on feature phones via USSD, support voice-based updates for illiterate members, and not require any member to have a bank account. Submit a product design document (max 10 pages) including: the core feature set addressing the three failure modes, USSD and voice design, how fraud is prevented without removing treasurer authority, how defaults are handled, a data privacy model, and a plan to pilot with 500 savings groups in one state. Judging criteria: 40% alignment with how savings groups actually operate, 30% fraud prevention design, 20% accessibility for feature phones and low literacy, 10% pilot plan.