Cyrer/skillbridge-africa

# SkillBridge Africa 🌍📞 > **A multi-agent AI system verifying informal economy worker skills via USSD/SMS interfaces.** > Built for the **Kaggle 5-Day AI Agents Capstone — Agents for Good track**. --- ## 📋 Table of Contents - Project Overview - The Problem It Solves - System Architecture - The 3-Agent Workflow - Security & Guardrails (Defense-in-Depth) - Model Context Protocol (MCP) Integration - Getting Started & Local Execution - Project Commands & Testing - Telemetry & Observability --- ## 🌟 Project Overview **SkillBridge Africa** is an AI-powered credentialing system designed to empower millions of informal economy workers (electricians, plumbers, carpenters, tailors, mechanics) across the African continent. By utilizing **USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)** and **SMS**—the primary protocols for mobile interactions in emerging markets—SkillBridge verifies professional trade skills through interactive voice/text pathways. It leverages Gemini-flash models to conduct assessments, score responses against technical references, and issue verification credentials without requiring internet connectivity or smartphones. --- ## 💡 The Problem It Solves The informal sector accounts for **over 80% of total employment** in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hundreds of millions of skilled tradespeople operate without formal certifications. Consequently: - **Trust Deficit:** Customers struggle to find qualified, trustworthy providers. - **Underemployment:** Skilled workers are locked out of gig platforms, micro-finance opportunities, and formal contracts due to a lack of verifiable credentials. - **Digital Divide:** Most modern verification apps require expensive smartphones and stable internet connections. **SkillBridge Africa** bridges this gap. It allows any worker with a basic feature phone to dial a USSD code, answer interactive trade-specific safety and technical questions, and receive an SMS-based verified credential containing a calculated Trust Score and Category …