🧒 cedikit in plain words
No computer knowledge needed for this part.
🛒 Meet Auntie Akosua
Auntie Akosua sells provisions in Kumasi. Most of her customers pay with Mobile Money (MoMo). Every time someone pays, her phone gets a text message like this:
Payment received for GHS 50.00 from KOFI MENSAH. Current Balance: GHS 320.00 ...
By the end of the month she has hundreds of these messages, and four problems:
- 😵 She can't see the big picture. How much did she make this week? Who are her best customers? The answers are buried in hundreds of texts.
- 📓 Her records are messy. Customers' phone numbers are written in many different ways
(
024 412 3456,+233244123456,244123456…), so the same person looks like three people. - 🧮 Small mistakes add up. Computers are surprisingly bad at adding money with pesewas: ask one to add GHS 0.10 and GHS 0.20 and you can get GHS 0.30000000000000004. Over thousands of sales, the totals drift.
- 🦹 Tricksters send fake messages. A thief shows her a text that looks like a real payment, takes the goods, and walks away. She was never paid.
cedikit is a set of careful helpers that fixes all four.
🧰 The helpers inside cedikit
| Helper | It works like… | What it does for Auntie Akosua |
|---|---|---|
| 📱 Number tidier | a teacher who makes everyone write their name the same way | Rewrites every phone number in one standard form, and says which network it most likely belongs to (MTN, Telecel or AT) |
| 💰 Money counter | a shopkeeper who never loses a single pesewa | Adds, rounds and writes money exactly, even in words: "Forty-five Ghana cedis and fifty pesewas" |
| 📩 Message reader | a secretary who reads every MoMo text for you | Picks out who paid, how much, when, the fee and the new balance, and writes it down neatly |
| 📷 Screenshot reader | someone reading a letter out loud to you | Reads the message straight off a screenshot, so you don't have to type or copy anything |
| 📒 Account book | an accountant | Adds everything up: money in, money out, fees, best customers, weekly totals. Then makes an Excel file and charts |
| 🚨 Scam detector | a wise security guard | Looks at a payment message and says "looks safe" ✅ or "be careful" ⚠️, and explains why |
| 🧾 Fee calculator | a friend who knows the price list | Estimates how much the network will charge for sending or withdrawing money |
| 🪪 ID checker | someone checking a form is filled in correctly | Checks that a Ghana Card number or GhanaPost digital address is written correctly |
🔄 What happens, step by step
flowchart LR
A["📩 MoMo text<br/>messages"] --> B["🔍 cedikit<br/>reads them"]
B --> C["📋 Neat list of<br/>every payment"]
C --> D["📊 Totals, charts<br/>and an Excel file"]
B --> E["🚨 Scam check"]
E --> F["✅ Looks safe"]
E --> G["⚠️ Be careful:<br/>here's why"]- You give cedikit the messages: copy them from the phone, take a screenshot, or an app does it for you.
- It reads each one and turns it into a neat line: "50 cedis, from Kofi Mensah, Monday 10:15am, balance 320 cedis."
- It adds everything up into a monthly summary, just like an accountant's report.
- It checks suspicious messages for signs of a trick.
🕵️ How the scam detector thinks
It works like a detective looking for clues. One clue might be an accident; several clues together mean real danger.
| 🔎 Clue | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Who sent it? | Real MoMo alerts come from "MobileMoney" or "T-CASH". A message from an ordinary phone number like 055 123 4567 is almost always fake. |
| Does it look exactly like a real alert? | Fakes copy the wording but get it slightly wrong, e.g. "Cash In for" instead of "Cash In received for". |
| Spelling mistakes? | Real alerts are written by a computer and never have typos. "Avaliable balan" is a giveaway. |
| Scary or pushy words? | "Your account is blocked, don't try your PIN" or "I sent it by mistake, send it back" are classic tricks. |
| Disguised letters? | Tricksters write "Suspéndéd" with strange accents to sneak past phone spam filters. |
| Does the maths work? | If yesterday's balance was 100 cedis and you "received" 50, today's balance must be 150. If the message says 700, something is wrong. |
The more clues it finds, the louder the alarm: LOW 🟢, MEDIUM 🟡 or HIGH 🔴. It always explains which clues it found.
cedikit is a helper, not a bank
Even when it says "looks safe", always check your balance in the official MoMo app or by dialling your network's official code before handing over goods.
🔒 Is my information safe?
Yes. cedikit works entirely on your own computer or phone app. It never sends your messages, numbers or money details anywhere on the internet.
👥 Who is it for?
- 🏪 Shop owners can use the desktop app directly: no coding, just buttons (see the apps page).
- 👩💻 Programmers use it like ready-made building blocks to build apps for Ghanaian businesses, so they don't have to build these helpers from scratch.
- 🏪 Traders also benefit through apps other people build on cedikit: cleaner records, automatic accounts and scam warnings.
- 🎓 Students and researchers use it to study Mobile Money data.
📚 Words you might see
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Mobile Money (MoMo) | Sending and receiving money using a phone, e.g. MTN MoMo or Telecel Cash |
| SMS | A text message |
| Library | A box of ready-made tools that programmers put inside their own apps |
| Python | A popular programming language; cedikit is written in it |
| Open source | The code is free for anyone to see, use and improve |
| PyPI | The online "app store" for Python tools; cedikit lives there |
| Offline | Works without the internet |