(01)National digital services programme

Mlango

Showcase concept

One door to government — a national e-services portal and citizen app that put 42 public services behind one search, with mobile-money payments, a tracking code for every application and a USSD fallback for feature phones.

Client: Mlango
Year: 2026
Discipline: Business Systems & Software
Scope: Government · Digital services · Mobile app · Service design · Design system

(01)The challenge

Renewing a licence or registering a business meant visiting several offices, each with its own forms, fees and queues.

A national programme wanted every citizen to reach every service from any phone — including people on 3G or without a smartphone — in English and Swahili.

(02)Our approach

We designed one front door: a portal that starts with a single question — “What do you need to do?” — and life-event journeys such as starting a business or having a baby. The Android-first app takes a citizen from renewal to mobile-money payment to a digital licence with a QR code in three screens, and every application gets a tracking code. A lite mode keeps pages under 100 KB, a USSD menu serves feature phones, and an officer console with service-level timers keeps the queue moving behind the scenes — all on one design system.