I-Chama Project Documentation

The iChama app is an innovative digital platform that modernizes traditional chama groups by streamlining record-keeping and financial workflows into a secure, real-time system. This solution enables admins, secretaries, treasurers, and members to efficiently manage contributions, savings, and investments, as well as request and repay loans through automated workflows. Users also receive real-time notifications and can access AI-powered support to address any chama-related queries. Team Composition & Mentorship The iChama team consists of talented students from Meru University of Science and Technology, School of Computing and Informatics, Computer Science Department, who brought their innovation to the project under the guidance and mentorship of Muru Technologies, a software development company led by Christian Muru. The team members were: •⁠ ⁠Collins Munene (BSc. Computer Science): Team Lead and DevOps expert, responsible for overseeing the project's technical direction and ensuring seamless integration of various components. •⁠ ⁠Christopher Mbuthia (BSc. Computer Science): Backend developer who, along with Collins Munene, developed robust Nestjs services for contributions, loans, repayments, and core logic. •⁠ ⁠Oliver Mahonga (BSc. Data Science): Frontend Developer who crafted an intuitive user interface using Next.js with ShadCN UI. •⁠ ⁠Joy Shanney Opiyo (BSc. Computer Security and Forensics): UI UX Designer who created visually appealing and user-friendly wireframes and actual designs using Figma. The project was part of the Responsible Computing Challenge (RCC) under Dr. Mary Mwadulo as the Principle Investigator (PI) and received valuable mentorship from Muru Technologies. The team also benefited from tutorial assistance provided by Dismas Kitaria, who emphasized the importance of adhering to project timelines, privacy-by-design, and accessibility in the development process.