Kota, Case Study · Pietra Gottardo

The Challenge

Paper, filled in by the wrong hands.

The DRC produces over 70% of the world's cobalt, much of it dug by hand in a sector that sustains an estimated 10 million people. Banking access among artisanal miners sits at 1 to 3%, and informal lenders fill the gap on predatory terms.

The blockage sits in the paperwork. Banks need identity, source of funds and due diligence, and no shared registry holds that record, so it ran on paper filled in by a bank agent on the operator's behalf. The person answering was never the person who knew, and the easiest decision was always no.

The Solution

Change who holds the pen.

KOTA moves the starting point: the operator registers themselves and submits digitally, in their own words. The bank receives a structured application instead of a stack of handwritten cards, and the operator gets a score that shows the path forward. The record belongs to the person it describes.

One engine serves two institutions, a commercial bank and a government-mandated commodity aggregator, each with its own vocabulary for the same record. The team set the direction. My part was everything the operator and the reviewer touch: the registration form, the score and how it explains itself, and the review flow between bank and operator.

The problem and the users

Small producers needed a better way to apply for a bank account.

Applications arrived as handwritten forms that bank agents filled in on their behalf, so they were hard to verify. Two people meet in that process, the operator who applies and the bank reviewer who decides.

39% of adults with a bank account, 8.7% of firms with a loan, EU due-diligence rules since 2021, and where those numbers come from.

What each side needs, and what holds it back.

The Product

Everything the bank needs to defend a decision, in one place.

The bank's screen at wireframe stage and at handover, then the dashboard a reviewer works from.

Handover screen — The same screen at both ends of the work. Drag to compare.

Low-fi wireframe — The same screen at both ends of the work. Drag to compare.

Score, risk, documents and counterparties, in one read.

Data collection

The file comes together from both sides.

The operator fills in the registration and answers the bank's questions. The bank reads the same record as it fills in.

Data visualisation

Be the bank, or be the operator.

One record, two seats. As the bank, you see your applicants on a map, the evaluation list, and a file to approve, question or decline. As the operator, you see the same file from the other side: your score, the reviewer's questions, and the form to answer them. Switch sides from the sidebar.

The same record, read from either seat.