MobiNest

MobiNest: A Cross-Border Wallet for Informal Workers

Inspiration

We were inspired by the many stories of domestic workers, day laborers, and cross-border migrants who earn and save money informally but face limited or no access to financial tools, and often lose out on social protections like pensions. Existing banking systems are not built with these users in mind they’re too formal, too slow, and often don’t cross borders.

Mobinest is a solution built for the way informal workers live and earn: mobile-first, low-data, multilingual, and borderless.

What it does

Mobinest is an AI-enabled, biometric-linked mobile wallet tailored for informal and migrant workers across Southern Africa. It empowers users to save, access pensions, and transfer funds across borders securely and affordably even without a bank account. Designed with cybersecurity at its core, it uses facial or fingerprint recognition, eliminating the need for hard-to-manage passwords.

How we built it

We will be using the following stack:

• Kotlin: For both Android frontend and backend.
• Firebase:
  • Authentication (with biometric support)
  • Firestore for real-time data
  • Firebase Cloud Functions for backend logic
  • Firebase ML for lightweight on-device AI capabilities
• Biometric APIs: For device-level facial or fingerprint login
• Exchange Rate APIs: To allow cross-border currency conversion

• Language APIs: To allow for a multilingual application

  Challenges we ran into

  We anticipate some challenges in the development of this app, such as:

• Navigating complex regulations around cross-border remittances and pensions.

• Building an app that is secure yet easy to use for people who may not be tech-savvy.

• Ensuring identity verification without requiring formal documents.

• Designing for low bandwidth and low-end devices.

• Getting buy-in from stakeholders across different countries.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

What we learned

What's next for MobiNest

Built With

• apis
• firebase
• kotlin