Work · 04 / Trust · Ficham
Ficham is a consumer-protection ledger for informal markets, where credit histories and courts are out of reach.
An OSIH product exploration.
01 · The problem
A student loses a housing deposit. A vendor accepts a fake proof of payment. Often there is no record to consult, no dispute channel and no reputation that travels with the other party. Informal commerce moves fast, and the trust infrastructure around it is missing.
02 · The build
Every report costs 100 FCFA. The toll does not prove a report is true. It makes careless noise expensive and ties each claim to a traceable commitment.
Disputes go through a double-blind repayment path. Repayment is recorded on the profile, so nobody at Ficham has to act as judge.
03 · The pattern
We turn trust and dispute resolution into explicit rules. Marketplaces and logistics networks without a central record need the same.
Keep reading
Every product taught us something we now check for in each pre-mortem.
Location context for routing, matching and operations where complete addresses cannot be assumed.
Read the case All workFive products built and run by OSIH, from location data to roadside assistance.
Back to work YoursBefore you build it, let us argue against it. The Africa Pre-Mortem, CHF 1,900, in five business days.
Test it before you build