MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

SPOTON

One-line solution summary:

SpotOn provides digital addressing system based on 11-digit mobile phone numbers to small businesses for identity, commerce and wallet.

Pitch your solution.

It is difficult to locate small businesses in Nigeria due to inadequate office and house numbering systems. Millions of small and micro businesses in rural and sub-urban communities have no formal location-based business identity, a key requirement to access capital and new market opportunities in the formal economy.

This limits businesses’ visibility and opportunity to sell to new customers virtually, receipt payment digitally and build digital financial history for guaranteed access to capital.

SpotOn provides location-based digital identity by mapping geo-coordinates to any 11-digit phone numbers; such that the mobile phone numbers become their address.

With over 180million mobile connections in Nigeria out of a population of 200million+, Spoton ensures more people have access to the digital economy through a safe and private digital identity that allows small businesses to thrive with expanded access to commerce and capital.

Film your elevator pitch.

—

What specific problem are you solving?

SpotOn aims to address the challenge of economic/financial divide by providing an alternative identity system to the informal segment.

This will effectively serve the over 40million micro businesses across Nigeria, especially the rural and suburban segments who have no form of digital footprint which can be leveraged for point-of-presence identity, commerce or verifiable access to capital.

SpotOn expands their business reach through the digital marketplace, which works on their basic featurephones and short-message services (SMS) for easy business transactions, complemented with a phone-based wallet for virtual payment and credit history building.

With this solution, farmers, vulcanizers, street traders, fashion designers and many others can unlock more opportunities in the digital economy through a location-verifiable digital identity that drives commerce, social credibility and verifiable access.

What is your solution?

Spoton is a geospatial mobile and web application which maps locations and commercial opportunities at hyperlocal levels.

Every micro-business owner downloads the Android app on their basic featurephones. The application uses SMS to verify the owner’s phone number and then maps this to the coordinate where the business is located. The business owner decides the degree of visibility of the digital identity by pre-validating phone numbers that can access it on the application.

In addition, the commercial credibility of the SpotOn app is reinforced by the on-site verifiers, a network of 6,000 local data agents, who visits each business location to verify the location and the nature of business for accuracy and appropriateness. In addition, these agents help the users to set up a marketplace, manage offers and integrate financial wallet via owner-driven authentication. This effort addresses the digital literacy gap in this segment of the informal economy.

The local business owners can also use basic SMS to manage the application with ease. A dedicated call centre is provided in local languages to address queries.

The platform exposes its API to financial services providers to leverage its credibility data to support loan access decision making.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

This digital identity solution is targeted at the low-income informal business owners in rural and suburban locations in Nigeria. The majority of this segment do not have access to bank loans because they are thin-file with no financial history and credible business documentation and traceable business location.

Therefore, many of them have become victims of predatory lenders at shylock interest rates and unbearable terms which have killed many businesses. In addition, the lack of a credit bureau and shared social infrastructure for better loan decisions have limited the growth opportunities of micro-businesses in Nigeria.

While e-commerce is booming for the medium to large scale businesses, the low-income informal businesses are disadvantaged because of lack of digital presence, that is, basic location identity and social credibility.

This solution is a bottom-up approach to address their needs for visibility, credibility building, and commercial traction, while also enabling them to build a financial history for incremental growth capital.

Beyond the opportunity to sell and become findable digitally, the platform digitizes business transaction, social reviews, virtual payments, and digital footfalls.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Scale safe and private digital identity and financial tools to allow people and small businesses to thrive in the digital economy.

Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the Challenge.

SpotOn is a solution that is carefully designed to upscale and support micro businesses by creating digital identities for them in a way that they can participate in the digital economy with minimal technical know-how.

Our simple approach uses mobile phone on a basic featurephone, which is a common denominator in the informal socio-economic segment of Nigeria. Our technology incorporates the use of spatial data to enable businesses to become locally visible for incremental opportunities that digital economy brings. It is bespoke to scale safe digital identity that allows small businesses to thrive in the digital economy.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Lagos, Nigeria

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Prototype: A venture or organization building and testing its product, service, or business model.

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.

SpotOn (mobile and web app) is a prototype that is at the stage where all the needed features are added one milestone at a time, and each new added feature tested in-house by the team. It currently exists as a mobile app that is yet to be hosted. We are at this stage where we are testing to be sure it can give us at least 70% of the desired outcome. The remaining 30% we will get after deployment.

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Wuraola Oyewusi, Project Lead

More About Your Solution

If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:

na

If you have additional video content that explains your solution, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link here:

—

Which of the following categories best describes your solution?

A new application of an existing technology

What makes your solution innovative?

The solution is catalytic because of its focus approach on the low-income segment and an intentional technology built on what they have (mobile phone number and basic feature phone with interoperable SMS services)

The opportunity to create a mobile-powered marketplace takes the concept of informal e-commerce to the next level while also driving inclusiveness and access for many.

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning
Crowd Sourced Service / Social Networks
GIS and Geospatial Technology
Software and Mobile Applications

Select the key characteristics of your target population.

Rural
Peri-Urban
Urban
Poor
Low-Income
Middle-Income

Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?

1. No Poverty
8. Decent Work and Economic Growth
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
10. Reduced Inequality
11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
12. Responsible Consumption and Production

In which countries do you currently operate?

Nigeria

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

Nigeria

How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?

Our solution aims to serve the over 5 million small businesses in Nigeria in 3 years.

We plan to take an agile approach to onboard the 1million micro and small enterprises in South West Nigeria through our effective crowdsourcing approach using young post-secondary graduates. This approach will be replicated to take the product to the rural and semi-urban business in the remaining states of Nigeria with the help of our rapidly growing community of 6000+ verified data agents/collectors spread across all the states of Nigeria. They will be compensated per outlet registered and verified through another third party agent.

How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?

No Poverty : reduction in the national poverty indices

No Hunger: reduction in the incidences of absolute poverty (complete lack of the means necessary to meet basic personal needs, such as food)

Decent Work and Economic Growth : Growth in microbusinesses and new jobs created by recruiting people and paying taxes

Responsible Inequalities: Increase in number of businesses owned by women and their sustained lifecycle beyond 3 years

About Your Team

Your Business Model & Partnerships

Partnership & Prize Funding Opportunities

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?

Business model (e.g. product-market fit, strategy & development)

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The ASA Prize for Equitable Education? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

Yes, I wish to apply for this prize

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The Andan Prize for Innovation in Refugee Inclusion? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

No, I do not wish to be considered for this prize, even if the prize funder is specifically interested in my solution

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The HP Prize for Advancing Digital Equity? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

Yes, I wish to apply for this prize

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for the Innovation for Women Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

Yes, I wish to apply for this prize

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The AI for Humanity Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

Yes, I wish to apply for this prize

Explain how you are qualified for this prize. How will your team use The AI for Humanity Prize to advance your solution?

Data Science Nigeria (Registered under the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria as Data Scientists Network Foundation) is a registered non-profit organization with a vision to build a world-class Artificial Intelligence knowledge, research and innovation ecosystem that delivers high impact & transformational research, business use applications, AI-first start-ups, employability and social good use cases; such that in 10 years, Nigeria will become one of the top 10 AI talent/knowledge destinations with 20% GDP multiplier impact.

We are an award-winning community of world-class experts in Data Science, Software Engineering, Geospatial Analytics, Financial Inclusion Analytics and Artificial Intelligence with an inspiring in-house team and additional access to the largest cluster of Nigerian and International AI talents. Data Science Nigeria’s tried, and true system of training and AI community building has been validated by world-class institutions. In January 2021, we emerged as the only African finalist in the Global XPRIZE Pandemic Response Challenge on the development of data-driven AI systems to predict COVID-19 infection rates and prescribe actions for minimizing COVID-19 transmissions.

Furthermore, in July 2020, we won the Award of Best Academic Poster at the 21st ACM Conference on Economics & Computation (EC’ 20)- the world’s premier conference on the interface of economics and computer science. In 2019, we won 2 highest Artificial Intelligence awards on the continent space at the Deep Learning Indaba, Kenya: Maathai Impact Award and 2nd Best Research Poster. In addition, we were recognized at the world’s largest Artificial Intelligence Hackathon, Tunisia 2019.

Based on the impact of our work in the past 4 years, we have been able to impact kids and teens in Nigeria by empowering them with Future of work-related skills to make them useful to their immediate society in the long term. Thereby supporting the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation in its mission to impact lives and benefit humanity at scale.

Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The GSR Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.

Yes, I wish to apply for this prize