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MobileFintechReact NativeWest Africa

MontiEx: Mobile Crypto Exchange

Mobile-first crypto exchange prototype for West African markets

The Challenge

Most crypto platforms were poorly adapted for West Africa, ignoring mobile money dominance, local currencies, regulatory uncertainty, and low-end device performance. The challenge was to build a trading experience optimized for these real-world constraints.

Approach & Solution

  • Conducted user research across West Africa to map real payment habits and pain points with existing apps
  • Defined the full product flow: wallet creation → mobile-money deposit → local-currency price feeds → one-tap buy/sell → instant withdrawal
  • Designed all user journeys and high-fidelity screens, prioritising simplicity (3-tap trading) and offline resilience
  • Wrote detailed PRDs and API contracts for payment gateway integrations (sandbox testing with multiple providers)
  • Built the prototype in React Native with external UI/UX support and AI-assisted coding for rapid iteration
  • Personally handled all QA: unit testing, device-farm validation across low-end Androids, and end-to-end flow verification

Results

01Delivered a fully functional end-to-end prototype in under 6 months, capable of real mobile-money on/off-ramps in sandbox
02Validated strong market demand through user interviews and beta feedback (90%+ expressed intent to use)
03Confirmed technical feasibility on low-end devices with sub-3-second load times and offline caching
04Project paused due to regulatory complexity (not technical limitations), providing clear learnings for future market entry
05Gained deep insight into emerging-market fintech constraints that directly informs product decisions today

Key Artifacts

At a Glance

Role
Solo Founder & Product Owner
Domain
Fintech / Crypto
Scale
West African market focus
Tech Stack
React NativeMobile wallet integrationsPrice feed APIsPayment gateway sandboxesAI-assisted development