Uruziga: management for cooperatives, on any phone

Context

Cooperatives have a lot of money moving between a lot of people. They manage sales, income and expenses, and at the end they share the profit among their members. All of it needs to be transparent, because a cooperative only works if every member can trust the numbers.

Many members do not use smartphones. A system that only works in a browser or an app leaves some of them out.

In March 2022, the month I started at IPRC Tumba, I joined the Youth Innovation Challenge run through the college's business incubation projects. The idea I presented was Uruziga.

What we built

Uruziga is a management system for cooperatives that works over three channels:

• the web, for cooperative leaders and administrators;
• USSD, the text menus you reach by dialling a short code, which work on any phone;
• a mobile app, for members with smartphones.

It covers sales, income, expenses and profit sharing, and it includes payments and SMS so that members can take part and stay informed whichever phone they have. NDAYAMBAJE Celestin and I built the first version together, and it was selected in the top 20 in March 2022.

The hard part

A team that changed shape. After the top-20 selection, Celestin continued his studies abroad, and UWAYEZU Jean Felix joined me to carry Uruziga through the business incubation programme. That partnership shaped what came next, including HDEV TECH, which we registered in October 2022 so that we could issue invoices and sign contracts.

The TVET Youth Challenge, organised by the Ministry of Youth, asked for a final-year student as team leader. TWAHIRWA Djibril led our entry, with Felix and me as teammates, and on 15 November 2022 Uruziga took third place with 1,000,000 Frw.

Learning to answer business questions. Through the incubation programme we were mentored by TUYIHIMBAZE Serge of Leaper Labs (through 4DSMETRICS), ISHIMWE NKUSI Claudine, the business incubation specialist at RP Tumba College, and BIZIMANA Hubert, who worked with her. RP Tumba College and Expertise France (AFD) supported the programme. The mentors pushed us past features: who pays, why they would pay, and what it costs to keep the system running. Those questions changed how we pitched.

Results

• March 2022: selected in the top 20 of the Youth Innovation Challenge, as the third team.
• 15 November 2022: third place at the TVET Youth Challenge, with 1,000,000 Frw.
• 20 March 2023: I presented the final pitch as team leader, with Felix, at RP Tumba College.
• March 2023: first place at the Youth Innovation Challenge, with 3,000,000 Frw.
• The prize covered hosting infrastructure and the expansion of the services we offer through HDEV TECH.
• Uruziga is deployed and used privately by three cooperatives.

What I would do differently

We arrived at the incubation programme thinking about what Uruziga does, and we left thinking about customers, costs and sustainability. I would start asking who pays, why, and what the system costs to run in the first weeks of a project, not once the programme has begun.

Stack and role

• Role: co-founder and team leader; I presented the final pitch.
• Team: UWAYEZU Jean Felix, NDAYAMBAJE Celestin (early stage), and TWAHIRWA Djibril (team leader for the TVET Youth Challenge entry).
• Channels: web, USSD and a mobile app, with payments and SMS.
• Timeframe: March 2022 to March 2023.