LoanLab

Inspiration

According to the World Bank, nearly 2 million people are excluded from the formal financial system, meaning they do not have access to things like savings and credit.

Access to these kinds of financial services could help build self-sufficiency and economic sustainability for many. In developing countries, wage-paying jobs are limited, meaning many people create a living for themselves through unregulated markets. Often, individuals are self-employed as they own and operate small businesses. Credit traditionally requires meeting a stringent set of financial prerequisites, placing borrowing out of the hands of millions who could benefit from it.

What it does

LoanLab is a mobile application that attempts to bridge this gap by offering peer-to-peer microloans. Users may gain access to microloans from other app users without the need for a credit check from a financial institution. LoanLab offers lenders a “charitable” method of investing as their loans will provide essential capital for entrepreneurs in developing nations as well as small returns for the lenders themselves.

As mobile phones and point-of-service payment methods are becoming ubiquitous, those in developing countries and remote areas with poor roads, electricity, and landline access now have a method of connection with the outside world. With LoanLab, people can use their phones to make instant transactions instead of traveling for hours to reach a bank branch that may not even accept them.

How we built it

My prototype is built in Figma. The application itself is built in Android Studio.

Challenges we ran into

I ended up getting quite sick the day of the hackathon, which was rather limiting to my productivity. I’m still happy with what I was able to create and experiment with in the end.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I’m a web developer, so the obvious choice would have been for me to create a web application. I’ve never built a mobile app before, so I wanted to learn something new. This was also my first ever hackathon.

What we learned

I got to understand the basics of app development in Android Studio, as well as programming in Kotlin.

What's next for LoanLab

Proper integration with JengaAPI will need to be completed for payment processing. I originally planned to build (and crafted the mockups) for iOS, but my secondary research determined that Android is more commonly used in developing nations. iOs is definitely favoured in developed countries, however, and the app requires users from both places to function as intended. While I began the development for Android, ideally the app will be developed in tandem for both platforms.

Built With

• android-studio
• figma
• kotlin