Overview
Ghana BNPL is a buy now, pay later platform for smartphones, designed around the Ghana market. A customer registers, verifies their identity, picks a phone from the marketplace, pays a deposit and then settles the rest in instalments by mobile money or card. The project covers the whole system: the server, an admin dashboard for the lender, and a mobile app for customers.
The problem
A smartphone is a large one-off cost for many people. Paying in instalments makes one more affordable, but it only works if the lender can confirm who the customer is, judge the risk, collect payments and protect the device when payments stop. This platform joins those steps into one connected flow.
How the customer journey works
- Register with a phone number, confirm it with a one-time code and log in.
- Submit identity (KYC) details for review.
- Browse the smartphone marketplace and apply for financing.
- A rules-based credit assessment scores the application.
- Pay the deposit. The loan is created and the device is released.
- Pay instalments by mobile money or card and receive notifications.
- If payments are missed, the device can be marked as locked, and unlocked again once the customer pays.
The three parts
- Backend: the API that handles accounts and login, KYC review, the marketplace, financing, payments, device lock status and admin reporting.
- Admin dashboard: a simple web page with no build step. Staff see overview metrics, manage customers and blacklist them, review KYC submissions, manage devices and merchants, and lock or unlock devices on loans.
- Mobile app: a Flutter app skeleton for Android and iOS where customers register, verify, submit KYC, browse phones, apply for financing, pay instalments and read notifications.
The admin side also has a reporting view covering customers, loans, revenue and default rate.
Built with
- Python and FastAPI for the backend, with a MySQL database and JWT login
- Plain HTML and JavaScript for the admin dashboard
- Flutter for the customer mobile app
Current status
This is a working prototype, not a live lending service. The full flow runs from registration to instalment payments, but the payment gateway is simulated so it can run without live credentials. One-time codes are printed to the console during development, KYC documents are saved on local disk, and photo upload is a prepared hook rather than a finished feature.
What comes next
- Database migrations with Alembic instead of automatic table creation
- Real SMS delivery for one-time codes (Hubtel or Arkesel)
- Real payment providers (Paystack, Hubtel or Flutterwave)
- Cloud storage for KYC documents
- Automated tests
- A real device-management (MDM) integration, so the lock and unlock status controls the phone itself