The first screen
If home does not load, nothing else matters. Caching, images, and a feed that degrades — not a spinner that never ends.
Consumer & Lifestyle
Consumer software in this market lives on the phone. Jumia and Konga taught people to order. Jiji taught them to list. Chowdeck and Glovo taught them food at the door. Bolt is often the ride and the food. Netflix, Spotify, DStv, and Showmax are what people open when they are not buying. Carbon sits where a consumer product starts to look like a wallet. Those names define the loop. They are not a client roster.
The loop is the product: browse, pay, get a notification, come back. If the first screen is slow on a bad network, there is no loop. If pay fails silently, there is a support queue. If the listing or the order cannot be reversed without deleting history, you do not have an operation — you have a brochure.
We build that class of product: something a person uses, not an internal dashboard that never ships. FCCPC sits on consumer rights and refunds. NBC on broadcast and streaming. NCC on the telco channel. NITDA on the digital service. NDPC on the NDPA. NAFDAC where the product is food. We do not run a marketplace. We do not hold inventory. You keep the catalogue, the customers, and the code.
Who this is for
- Marketplaces and classifieds that have to match listings to pay-in and fulfilment.
- Food and on-demand products that live on maps, wallets, and a rider who can go offline.
- Lifestyle apps that need a reason to return tomorrow — not a campaign landing page.
In this sector
Marketplaces, food, the feed, and a reason to return.
Marketplaces and classifieds
Jumia, Konga, Jiji: catalogue, search, chat, pay, dispute. The names are the shape of the sector.
Food and on-demand
Chowdeck, Glovo, Bolt: order, map, rider, wallet. The product is the loop, not the cuisine photo.
What people open at night
Netflix, Spotify, DStv, Showmax: sessions, profiles, and a catalogue. Streaming is part of lifestyle here, not a separate planet.
When the app holds money
Carbon and other consumer wallets sit next to this sector. Collections still have to reconcile. We do not pretend that is only a fintech problem.
Areas covered
We build the software a consumer product actually runs on. Typical work includes:
01
The loop on the phone
Feed or catalogue, search, cart or booking, pay, notify, return. Designed for iOS and Android on networks that drop. A web-only brochure is not this product.
02
Listings, orders, and the desk
What is for sale, what was paid, what can be cancelled. Support needs a desk. Vendors need a door that is not the founder’s WhatsApp.
03
Maps, riders, and wallets
When the product is in the street, location and payout are not extras. Failed deliveries and failed collections need a state, not a deleted row.
04
Handover
Repo, store listings, keys, and hosting in your name. We do not keep the customer list after we leave.
What the software has to survive
A consumer product is not finished when the happy path works on office Wi-Fi. It has to survive a bad network, a cancelled order, and a user who will not open a slow app twice.
Pay and reverse
Collection can fail. Refunds and cancellations need a trail. Deleting the order to “fix” it is how you lose the argument with the customer and with finance.
People who go offline
Riders, vendors, buyers. The product has to hold a state when someone disappears for an hour, not assume every actor is live.
A reason to return
Notifications that are true. A saved list, an order, a show still watching. Spam is not retention.
Questions a user will not ask — they will just leave
If you cannot answer these in the product, they will not file a ticket. They will delete the app.
- 01
Does the first screen load on a bad network?
- 02
Can someone pay, get a receipt, and come back tomorrow?
- 03
What happens when a rider or vendor is offline?
- 04
Can you reverse an order without deleting history?
- 05
Is the feed the product, or a brochure?
How we build it
We build for the phone people actually have, and the loop you can operate on Monday.
Mobile as the product
If the business is an app, we do not treat mobile as a skin on a desktop admin.
States, not vibes
Paid, failed, cancelled, delivered. Each has a screen and a log.
The desk behind it
Support and vendors get tools. The founder’s inbox is not a queue.
Handover
Stores, keys, repo. You can ship the next version without us.
- Someone who will use the app on a bus sits in the review if you can find them.
- We do not ship a catalogue that cannot take money or cannot refund.
- We do not keep customer data after handover.
Where we stop
We build the product. We do not pretend to be the marketplace, the rider network, or the streamer.
- We do not operate Jumia, Konga, Jiji, Chowdeck, Glovo, or Bolt. Those names define the sector.
- We do not hold an FCCPC, NBC, NCC, NITDA, NDPC, or NAFDAC licence. Those agencies define the sector. They are not clients.
- We do not keep the repository or production keys after handover.
The landscape
Agencies that write the rules, then marketplaces, food, streaming, and consumer wallets people already know. This is the market — not a list of Emicraft clients. Konga and Chowdeck belong in that picture even when we do not host their marks.
Regulators & agencies
Marketplaces
On-demand
What people open at night
Consumer wallet (same phone)
Building something a person will open again tomorrow?
Bring the loop — browse, pay, return — and the network your users actually have. We will say what the software can carry. We do not invent a consumer case study we have not shipped.