Kosalo Chama Management App
A mobile app that gives Kenyan chama officials one place to record contributions, manage loans, track payouts and share reports. Built end to end and live on Google Play.
The problem
Chamas often run on paper ledgers, spreadsheets and chat messages, and every group works a little differently. Some lend to members and share a dividend at year end, some rotate a pot between members, and some do both. Officials need records that are accurate, easy to update and easy to show members at a meeting.
What I built
Kosalo is a React Native app for Android that supports three kinds of groups: Table Banking, Merry-Go-Round and Hybrid. The group type is chosen at setup and the app adapts to it. Each group has a Secretary, Chairperson, Treasurer and members, and one person can hold a different role in each group they belong to. I designed and built the whole product solo: the mobile app, the backend, and the web tools around it.
Inside the app
Login
Secure email and password sign-in. When a member signs up, the app matches their phone number to the record their secretary already created, so they land straight in their group.
Groups
A list of every group the user belongs to, tagged by group type. Anyone can start a group and becomes its Secretary, and can be a regular member in others.
Home
Summary cards for the individual member and for the whole group, so a member sees their own position and an official sees the group at a glance. Hybrid groups get a tab switcher between the two parts.
Billing
Shows a group's plan and subscription details. Payment itself happens on a separate checkout website, linked from the app, in line with Google Play policy. See the checkout project.
And more
Contribution and loan tracking with per-group interest, rotation payouts with turn tracking, group and individual reports, an AI scan that reads photos of paper ledgers with a voice read-out of the results, and in-app notifications.
Tools used
Want to try it? Get Kosalo on Google Play →
“I spent so much time differentiating table banking and merry go round money for our group, until I discovered Kosalo which allows us to manage both merry go round and table banking digitally with clear records. It has saved my time and energy as the secretary since the group relied on me to keep track of all the transactions.”