Savings at the Frontier
(
2024
)
Client:
Mastercard Foundation & Oxford Policy Management (OPM)
Deliverables:
Product Strategy, UX/UI Design, Core Platform Development, Integration & Data Systems
Industry:
Finance
Introduction
Savings at the Frontier (SatF) is a flagship financial inclusion initiative funded by the Mastercard Foundation and implemented by Oxford Policy Management (OPM). Its mission is to strengthen the connections between informal savings groups and formal financial institutions across Africa.
Digiits was selected as the technology implementation partner to design and build a full-scale digital platform that could digitize microfinance operations, improve transparency, and enable inclusive access to formal financial services for underserved communities.
Problem Statement / Challenges
In many parts of Africa, smallholder farmers, traders, and micro-entrepreneurs rely on informal savings and lending groups. While essential to community finance, these systems often operate without digital traceability, structured data, or direct links to banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs).
The Mastercard-funded initiative aimed to overcome:
Manual record-keeping and inconsistent data tracking.
Poor visibility into group savings and loan activities.
Lack of digital infrastructure to connect informal groups to banks.
Inefficient loan disbursement and repayment processes.
The challenge for Digiits was to build a secure, scalable, and locally adaptable digital infrastructure capable of digitizing financial operations from the field to the institutional level.
Design process
The project began with extensive stakeholder discovery sessions across Ghana, Zambia, and Tanzania, working with MFIs, community agents, and policy advisors.
We conducted user research with savings groups and local agents to understand their workflows, literacy levels, and device constraints.
Our design team created a human-centered UX that emphasized accessibility, trust, and simplicity. The interface was optimized for low-connectivity areas, using clear visual language, localized content, and lightweight interactions to ensure seamless operation in remote regions.
Design prototypes were validated with end-users and microfinance representatives before development commenced, ensuring the product met the functional and cultural needs of its users.
Solution / Approach
Digiits architected and developed the Savings at the Frontier Platform as an enterprise-grade ecosystem capable of powering financial inclusion at scale.
Core Functional Modules:
Micro-Core Banking Engine: Built around a modular Java microservices architecture supporting savings, loans, interest computation, and ledger management.
Deposit & Funds Mobilization Tools: Allowing MFIs and agents to collect and manage savings digitally via mobile or USSD.
Loan Management System: End-to-end workflow for loan application, approval, disbursement, and repayment tracking.
E-Commerce & Agent Network Integration: Enabled digital marketplaces and agent-based collections for rural entrepreneurs.
Analytics & Monitoring Dashboards: Real-time data visualization for OPM, MFIs, and donors providing insights into savings behaviors, group performance, and impact metrics.
The platform was designed as a multi-tenant system with layered access, enabling multiple MFIs to operate independently within a secure shared environment.
Tech stack
Frontend
Angular, Bootstrap
Backend
Java (Spring Boot Microservices Architecture)
Infrastructure
AWS Cloud (EC2, S3, RDS, CloudWatch), Docker Containers
Integrations
Mobile Money APIs, SMS/USSD Gateways, Mastercard Foundation Data Systems
Design
Figma, Miro, Draw.io (for system mapping)
Database
PostgreSQL, Redis (for caching)
AI & Analytics
Elastic Stack (ELK), Power BI
Results / Impact
The Savings at the Frontier platform has become a cornerstone of Mastercard Foundation’s financial inclusion work, digitizing and connecting thousands of informal groups with formal financial institutions.
Impact Highlights:
Digitized and onboarded over 250,000 savings group records across three countries.
Improved financial transparency and auditability for microfinance institutions.
Reduced manual reporting time by over 60% through automated dashboards.
Strengthened partnerships between MFIs and banks via interoperable APIs.
Enabled Mastercard Foundation and OPM to track real-time impact metrics across their field programs.
By combining scalable technology with local insight, Digiits helped transform how informal finance operates in Africa setting a precedent for the future of digital financial inclusion.
