A Kinyarwanda voice-first operating system
# Ikigega
**A Kinyarwanda voice-first business operating system for women in Rwanda's informal economy.**
Ikigega ("granary" in Kinyarwanda) lets women running micro and informal businesses log their daily sales, purchases, and expenses **by speaking Kinyarwanda into their phone**, no typing, no forms, no literacy prerequisite. The system produces verifiable business records, spoken business intelligence, and a shareable credit-readiness statement that a SACCO loan officer can trust.
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## The problem
Across Rwanda and East Africa, the majority of women in the informal economy, market vendors, tailors, poultry farmers, small-scale traders, remain locked out of formal credit because they cannot produce verifiable records of their business activity. Banks and SACCOs demand records; women keep their books in their heads or on paper scraps; the two never meet, and lending stops before it starts.
Existing accounting apps assume literacy, typing dexterity, and a level of English-language comfort that most target users do not have. The mismatch between the tool and the user is the problem.
## The solution
Ikigega replaces the form with the microphone. A woman opens the app, presses one button, says *"Nagurishije ibitunguru bibiri kuri magana atanu"* ("I sold two onions for 500 francs"), and the transaction is captured, categorised, and stored. Over the course of a month, her voice log becomes structured business data. Ikigega compiles that data into a professional credit-readiness statement; a real, downloadable PDF with a scoring model that a SACCO can evaluate at a glance, plus a public share link the loan officer can open without an account.
The full technical specification lives in `docs/Dianah Gasasira Assignment 2 W4 June 29 2026.pdf`.
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## 🌐 Live Demo
- **App:**
ikigega-frontend.vercel.app
- **API:**
ikigega.onrender.com
- **Demo OTP:** The OTP is printed in Render server logs during development. For the graded submission, the OTP …