Money movement needs auditability
Fintech platforms fail when balances, roles, and transaction history are treated as afterthoughts. Ledgers, permissions, and audit trails belong in the first release scope — not a compliance patch six months later.
Every transaction should have: actor, timestamp, before/after state, external reference (e.g. M-Pesa receipt), and reversal rules. If you cannot explain a balance dispute from logs alone, the architecture is not ready.
M-Pesa integration architecture
Kenyan fintech products typically integrate via Daraja (C2B, B2C, STK Push) or aggregator APIs. Key design decisions:
Callback handling
M-Pesa callbacks can arrive out of order or duplicate. Your system needs idempotent handlers: same receipt ID should never credit twice. Queue callbacks, process asynchronously, and reconcile against Safaricom statements daily.
Wallet vs pass-through
Decide early whether you hold balances (wallet model) or route payments (pass-through). Wallets require float management, KYC tiers, and regulatory awareness. Pass-through is simpler but limits product flexibility.
Mobile journeys are the product
Customers, agents, and merchants interact on phones first. Design onboarding, payment, statement, and support flows for small screens and intermittent connectivity before expanding admin depth.
Agent networks add offline-tolerant flows: pending sync, supervisor approval, and end-of-day reconciliation from the field.
What a scoped MVP includes
A disciplined fintech MVP from Afri-Silicon typically covers: user onboarding, one core payment flow, ledger with audit trail, admin dashboard for operations, M-Pesa integration with reconciliation, and role-based access. Extensions — credit scoring, multi-currency, advanced analytics — come in phased releases.