Xesrcow

An escrow system which uses a carrier-based mobile money system as it primary payment gateway.

Introduction

In West African, the use of carrier mobile wallets and carrier mobile payments has grown by over 1500% over the past 7 years. In light of this, the gig economy and multi-vendor e-commerce companies can leverage this technology. In the region, one-third of the population actively use carrier mobile money. Hence, an escrow system which uses mobile money as it payment gateway will allow the gig economy to tap into an unbanked and unconnected region

The Aim of my solution

• The goal of this solution is to allow freelancing and multi-vendor e-commerce platforms to function in West African and potentially Africa. 
• Mobile money has become ubiquitous in the region and this technology helps Africans to transact with technology readily available to the masses.
• We aim to promote financial and digital inclusion for every one.

Use Case

An e-commerce site will integrate the escrow system in to their platform when building the platform. Buyers will purchase products and pay from their mobile wallets. The money is held in escrow and the product is delivered. Once both parties are satisfied. The escrow agent releases the funds into the seller's account.

An escrow system is one of the key components required for any freelancing or multi-vendor e-commerce marketplace to function autonomously without compromising trust on the platform.

For instance, Ebay in 1998 had 1.3 million user and $195 Million Gross merchandise sales at the end of the third quarter, after introducing an escrow system  which supports card payment in 1999, their active users increased to 7.7 million and the company made $741 Million in gross merchandise sales - almost 600% increase. 

In Sub Saharan Africa, there are as many vacant jobs as job seekers however freelancing platforms struggle to connect jobs and job seekers. Mainly because there is no escrow system tailored for the African economy. Same for multi-vendor websites, people need to trade among themselves but the process is not as seamless as typical e-commerce platforms in developed countries. 

In conclusion, we are losing jobs as a result to technological advancements in Africa. In addition, by 2030, Africa will have a larger workforce than present day China. By 2050, Africa will have the largest workforce in the world. Hence, it is crucial that freelancing jobs are created to match job-seekers and available jobs. Secondly, to promote e-commerce, an escrow system which can function in in an unconnected population needs to be implemented.

Most escrow systems available now use card payment, digital wallets(eg: Paypal) and bank transfers and these technologies in short supply in Africa. 

Mobile money is readily available to over 1/3 of the entire population in the West Africa and it's growing rapidly. It has become the defecto mode of payment for daily transactions and this will promote financial and digital inclusion in an unbanked and unconnected population. 

It therefore innovative connecting mobile wallets to an escrow system to support freelancing and multi-vendor marketplaces.

My solution is made up of 2 parts

• A freelancing website for remote work and a multi-vendor marketplace
• An escrow system which supports a carrier based mobile payment

All two components rely on technology to function. For instance, the platforms will rely on AI and machine learning for job-matching, items predictions and suggests and well as logistics calculations.

And the escrow relies on mobile technologies to function.

Develop the escrow software and connect it to telecommunication companies in the region and kick-start the platform by integrating it with existing 

Improve the Freelancing and outsource platform

Expand the platform to become a multi-vendor and freelancing platform

Grow the gig economy in the region. with my platform and allow employers to pay freelancers easily.

Make the escrow service available to all African Countries

Develop an escrow application framework for other business to use and customize for special use cases

Communities I am targeting will access the platform through freelancing platforms and e-commerce platform.

I will reach my customers through radio ads and referral programs 

The solution is still at the prototype stage

12 months - 1 million people

36 months - over 100 million people

We are all software developers.

We have one year Entrepreneurial training focusing on the African Continent

Revenue Model

A. An escrow platform will be created to serve multiple platforms in West Africa

Below are the tentative fees

1.Transaction Fees

• 4% on every personal transaction (2% each from issuer and receiver)
• 6% on every business transaction (3% each from issuer and receiver)

2.International payments

• International transaction fees

3. Business Account charges

4. Escrow service fees to business

B. An opensource escrow application framework will the developed and hosted on GitHub to allow other businesses use the source code and apply the concept in different areas. 

The product will the free. This aims to promote the adoption of escrow systems in the continent 

Solve will give me the platform to showcase my solution to the world and get all the necessary support to make it a reality. 

Solve will is selecting multiple solutions that solve work of the future. I believe I will have the opportunity to network with the creators and partner with them.

I believe that solve, has a good community which will allow my idea to grow. 

Key barriers:

Integration with existing financial institution:We will eventually need to gain the accreditation needed to allow other financial institutions accept our platform. Solve can help by supporting us to bring experts on board to ensure that our product complies with regulations in the financial institution. 

KYC functionalities:

We would have to bring more engineers on board to help develop all necessary  

Laws and e-commerce regulations