UniFlow: Empowering Botswana's Students

Inspiration & Problem Statement

UniFlow was born from observing the persistent financial struggles of Botswana’s DTEF-sponsored university students. These students face regular cash flow issues due to inconsistent or delayed allowance disbursements, forcing them to make difficult financial choices.

We identified four major problems:

Predatory Lending Practices
Students often resort to micro-loan providers charging exorbitant interest, trapping them in a cycle of debt.
Inflexible Repayment Terms
Existing lenders use repayment schedules that don't align with allowance timelines, causing defaults.
Cumbersome Loan Processes
Traditional bank loans require extensive paperwork and offer no urgency for students in financial distress.
Lack of Financial Literacy
Most students have little guidance on borrowing, budgeting, and financial responsibility.

Our Solution:
UniFlow is a student-centric digital lending platform, leveraging FNB’s infrastructure and DTEF’s data systems to provide:

Instant, low-interest micro-loans
Seamless API integration with DTEF
Flexible repayment plans aligned with allowance dates
Built-in financial wellness education

What It Does

UniFlow is a mobile and web application offering the following features:

Seamless DTEF Integration
Secure API access allows real-time verification of student status, sponsorship, and allowance disbursement schedules.
AI-Powered Eligibility and Fair Pricing
A machine learning engine analyzes student profiles and sets personalized loan amounts with bank-standard interest rates.
Instant Application and Disbursement
A fully digital application with e-signatures ensures approvals and payouts to FNB accounts in minutes.
Flexible Repayment Plans
Repayment is automatically scheduled around DTEF allowance dates, with options for grace periods and partial payments.
Financial Wellness Tools
Includes features for budget tracking, repayment predictors, and gamified learning modules on personal finance.
Transparent Loan Management
Students view loan statuses, due dates, and history via a personalized dashboard.
Security and Support
Future updates include biometric login, MFA, end-to-end encryption, and secure in-app support.

How We Built It

We used a traditional web development stack for simplicity and full control:

Frontend: HTML, CSS, Vanilla JavaScript
Backend: Vanilla PHP
Database: MySQL (via phpMyAdmin)

This stack allows us to create a responsive, lightweight, and easy-to-maintain system.

Code Example

// students.php - Comprehensive student records
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT 
                      s.*, 
                      u.name AS university_name,
                      COUNT(l.id) AS loan_count,
                      SUM(CASE WHEN l.status = 'repaid' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS repaid_loans
                      FROM students s
                      JOIN universities u ON s.university_id = u.id
                      LEFT JOIN loans l ON s.id = l.student_id
                      GROUP BY s.id");