COMSIP Malawi on ISEP — Software Requirements Specification v1.0

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About this document

Field	Value
Document ID	WGL-COMSIP-SRS-001
Contract milestone	M2 — Requirements Confirmation (Agreement, Annex 7). Sign-off of this SRS is the formal acceptance basis for M2.
Source documents	[R1] COMSIP ISDBMS Platform — Product Development Documentation (SDD), approved by COMSIP. [R2] Software Development, Hosting, License, Implementation and Support Agreement, Waltergates ↔ COMSIP, incl. Annexes 1–7. [R3] COMSIP ISDBMS Implementation Milestone Tracker. [R4] ISEP Website prototype (country selection, COMSIP portal).
Order of precedence	Where this SRS conflicts with the Agreement, the Agreement prevails. New scope in this SRS that is not in Annex 1 is flagged CR and needs a Change Request (Annex 6).

Revision history

Version	Date	Author	Change
0.1	01 Oct 2026	WGL Product	Requirements extracted from SDD [R1] and Annex 1 [R2]
1.0	05 Oct 2026	WGL Product	Added ISEP country routing, tenant isolation and MWK ⇄ USD engine

Priority key

Must — required for Go-Live (M7). Should — required by end of stabilisation (M8). Could — desirable; scheduled by agreement.

Contents

1Introduction

2Overall description

3ISEP integration & tenancy

4Functional requirements

5Currency engine (MWK ⇄ USD)

6External interfaces

7Non-functional requirements

8Data requirements

9Acceptance & traceability

10Open issues & assumptions

11Approval

COMSIP Malawi on ISEP · SRS v1.02

01Introduction

1.1Purpose

This SRS states what the COMSIP platform must do, how well, and under which constraints — in testable terms. It turns the approved SDD [R1] and the contractual scope in Annex 1 [R2] into numbered requirements that developers build against and COMSIP's UAT team tests against (Annex 4).

1.2Scope

The system is the COMSIP Cooperative Development Management Platform and COMSIV Microfinance Management System, built on Waltergates' ISDBMS. It is delivered as a dedicated tenant of ISEP:

Users reach it from the ISEP landing page by selecting Malawi.
It runs on its own database engine and keys. Nothing is shared with the ISEP Ghana network.
It keeps a Malawi Kwacha (MWK) ledger by default, with conversion and reporting in US Dollars (USD).

Channels: web portal, offline-first Android app, and a USSD service in English and Chichewa.

1.3Definitions

Term	Meaning
ISEP	Informal Sector Empowerment Platform — Waltergates' multi-country front door and shared services.
ISDBMS	Informal Sector Database Management System — Waltergates' proprietary core platform.
Tenant	A logically and physically isolated deployment of ISDBMS for one customer (here comsip-mw).
COMSIV	COMSIP's non-deposit-taking microfinance unit.
SLG	Savings and Loan Group — the informal group a member joins before graduating to a cooperative.
SSRLP	Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Programme (donor-funded).
TA	Traditional Authority — sub-district administrative unit used in reporting.
PAR	Portfolio at Risk — outstanding loan balance with repayments overdue by more than N days.
MWK / USD	ISO 4217 codes for the Malawi Kwacha and US Dollar. (MWK is the official code; "MKW" isn't.)
Booked rate	The exchange rate stored on a transaction when it is posted; it never changes afterwards.
Maker-checker	Control where one user enters a record and a different user approves it.

02Overall description

2.1Product perspective

ISEP Ghana already serves cooperatives and partner institutions. COMSIP joins as a second country with its own engine. The ISEP shell handles country choice and branding only; once a user enters the COMSIP tenant, all business logic, data and sessions belong to COMSIP's deployment.

Fig. 1 — Logical view

ISEP landing (isep domain)Country selector · public content · routes to tenant

Ghana tenantISEP cooperative network · GHS · existing ISDBMS DB

Malawi tenant · comsip-mwLaravel API · React portal · Android · USSD · DB isdbms_mw (PostgreSQL/MySQL) · MWK default · AWS Cape Town / Azure SA

Airtel MoneyMobile money

TNM MpambaMobile money

Bank gatewayCOMSIP's bank

USSD / SMSAggregator

COMSIP Malawi on ISEP · SRS v1.03

2.2User classes

User class	Channels	Main tasks	Scope
Union HQ executive (CEO, GM, Finance, Audit, M&E)	Web	Approvals, analytics, fund disbursement, regulatory and donor reports, FX rate approval (Finance)	National
District coordinator / case worker	Web, Android	Field monitoring, group audits, member verification, approving group registrations	District
Field extension worker	Android	Offline registration, training records, first-level loan appraisal	Assigned groups
COMSIV credit officer	Web, Android	Appraisal, disbursement authorisation, PAR tracking, product setup	Portfolio
Cooperative governance officer (chair, treasurer, secretary)	Web, Android	Member management, minutes, group savings verification, group financial reports	Own cooperative
Member / beneficiary	Android, USSD	Balance, loan status, statements, service requests	Self
IT administrator	Web	Users, configuration, security monitoring, backups	System

2.3Operating environment

Backend: Laravel (PHP) REST API. Frontend: React/Node.js. Mobile: native Android, encrypted SQLite (SQLCipher). Database: PostgreSQL or MySQL.
Hosting: dedicated cloud in a low-latency region (AWS Cape Town / Azure South Africa), CDN for static assets.
Time zone CAT (UTC+2). Phone numbers +265. Languages: English and Chichewa.

2.4Constraints

Malawi Data Protection Act (2024) and Ghana Data Protection Act 2012 (Act 843). COMSIP is Data Controller; Waltergates is Data Processor.
Cross-border hosting under Standard Contractual Clauses or MACRA permits.
USSD screens must fit 160 characters; sessions must survive operator timeouts.
Rural connectivity is intermittent — field work must not depend on being online.

2.5Dependencies

COMSIP delivers clean legacy registers within 20 business days of kickoff.
Bank gateway API credentials provisioned by M3.
USSD short code, SMS traffic and devices are COMSIP's responsibility (Annex 1 §6).
COMSIP names the reference commercial bank for exchange rates (see §5).

03ISEP integration & tenancy

New requirements that bring COMSIP under ISEP. These sit on top of Annex 1 scope.

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
ISEP-01	The ISEP landing page shall show a country selector with Ghana and Malawi, visible above the fold and in the site header on every page.	Must	R4
ISEP-02	Selecting Malawi shall route to the COMSIP portal (e.g. /mw or comsip.isep…) with COMSIP branding, Malawi content and MWK as the display currency.	Must	R4
ISEP-03	The selected country shall be remembered on the device and changeable at any time. Switching country shall end any active session in the other tenant.	Must	R4
ISEP-04	The COMSIP tenant shall use a separate database instance, schema, encryption keys, backups and secrets from every other ISEP tenant. No cross-tenant query path shall exist.	Must	R2 §12.1
ISEP-05	Identity shall be tenant-scoped: Ghana ISEP credentials shall not authenticate in the COMSIP tenant and vice versa. JWTs shall carry a tenant claim checked by every API call.	Must	R2 Annex 5
ISEP-06	COMSIP data shall not appear in the ISEP Ghana cooperative directory or any shared analytics unless COMSIP gives written consent per dataset.	Must	R2 §13.2
ISEP-07	ISEP shared services (status page, help centre, design system) may be reused, but they shall hold no COMSIP personal data.	Should	—
ISEP-08	Tenant configuration (currency, locale, time zone, phone format, fiscal year, admin units District → TA → Village) shall be set per tenant, not hard-coded.	Must	R2 Annex 1

COMSIP Malawi on ISEP · SRS v1.04

04Functional requirements

4.1Member management

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
MEM-01	Register a member with full legal name, gender, date of birth, National ID (where available), district, TA, SLG/cooperative, mobile number, photo and digital consent.	Must	SDD 3.1 · A2 §2
MEM-02	Validate National ID format on the device and at the server; store it encrypted at field level (AES-256).	Must	SDD 7.1
MEM-03	Detect likely duplicates (National ID, phone, name + DOB + group) before saving, and block a confirmed duplicate.	Must	A2 §2(c)
MEM-04	Capture socio-economic baseline and household demographics.	Must	A1 §2(a)
MEM-05	Track lifecycle status: Pending → Verified → Active → Graduated / Exited, with reason and date.	Must	SDD 3.1
MEM-06	District coordinator verifies new profiles; on activation the system generates a USSD PIN and sends it by SMS.	Must	SDD 5.1
MEM-07	Keep a full change history of every profile edit (who, when, before, after).	Must	SDD 3.1

4.2Cluster & cooperative governance

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
GOV-01	Maintain registries of SLGs, clusters, primary cooperatives and union affiliation.	Must	A1 §2(b)
GOV-02	Record leadership positions and tenure, committee structures and term expiry alerts.	Must	SDD 3.2
GOV-03	Record meetings, attendance and minutes, with attachments.	Must	SDD 3.2
GOV-04	Record share capital purchases per member and apply configurable dividend rules.	Must	SDD 3.2
GOV-05	Run a graduation workflow from SLG to registered cooperative, with checklist and approval.	Must	SDD 3.2

4.3Savings

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
SAV-01	Record group savings and individual voluntary savings: deposits, withdrawals, running balances.	Must	A1 §2(d)
SAV-02	Calculate and post interest per product rules; administer mandatory reserve funds.	Must	A1 §2(d)
SAV-03	Accept deposits via Airtel Money and TNM Mpamba, and by manual entry with treasurer confirmation.	Must	A1 §2(i)

COMSIP Malawi on ISEP · SRS v1.05

4.4COMSIV microfinance

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
MF-01	Configure loan products (individual, group, cooperative, seed capital) with term, interest method, fees, penalties, grace period and limits.	Must	SDD 3.3
MF-02	Accept loan applications from the web portal, the Android app (field officer) and USSD (member-initiated).	Must	SDD 5.2
MF-03	Score applications automatically using savings velocity, repayment history and group audit performance; show the factors to the officer.	Must	A1 §2(c)
MF-04	Route approvals by amount thresholds (officer → committee → manager → CEO), configurable by Finance.	Must	SDD 5.2
MF-05	Disburse via bank gateway or mobile money; generate the repayment schedule at disbursement.	Must	SDD 5.2
MF-06	Accrue interest and penalties daily; track repayments from mobile money or manual entry.	Must	SDD 3.3
MF-07	Calculate PAR 1/30/60/90 and raise delinquency alerts to officers and coordinators.	Must	A1 §2(c)
MF-08	Loans are denominated in MWK. USD-denominated loans are out of scope unless added by CR.	Must	A1 §2(h)

4.5SSRLP & livelihood programmes

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
SSR-01	Register beneficiaries and verify eligibility automatically against configurable programme criteria.	Must	SDD 3.4
SSR-02	Allocate and track seed capital, grants and agricultural inputs per beneficiary.	Must	A1 §2(e)
SSR-03	Record service delivery milestones and household economic impact over time.	Must	SDD 3.4
SSR-04	Record donor inflows in their original currency (often USD) and post to the MWK ledger at the booked rate (see §5).	Must	A1 §2(h)

4.6Audit, compliance & M&E

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
AUD-01	Provide tablet-friendly digital audit checklists that work offline.	Must	A1 §2(f)
AUD-02	Compute risk scores and institutional health ratings; keep compliance history per group.	Must	SDD 3.5
AUD-03	Let M&E staff build data collection forms without code.	Should	SDD 3.5

4.7Reporting & analytics

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
RPT-01	Dashboards disaggregated by district, TA, gender, age and vulnerability, meeting World Bank reporting formats.	Must	A1 §2(g)
RPT-02	Every financial report can be shown in MWK or USD; USD views state the rate basis used (see FX-09).	Must	A1 §2(h)
RPT-03	Export to CSV, XLSX and PDF.	Must	SDD 3.5

COMSIP Malawi on ISEP · SRS v1.06

4.8Channels

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
WEB-01	Responsive web portal with role-specific home screens for executives, underwriting, programmes and reports.	Must	A1 §2(k)
AND-01	Android app supports full offline registration, repayment capture and audits, stored in an encrypted local database.	Must	A1 §2(l)
AND-02	Show "last synced" time and pending upload count at all times.	Must	SDD 6.1
SYN-01	Two-way delta sync in the background, with checksums, retry queue and timestamped actions.	Must	SDD 3.7
SYN-02	Resolve conflicts by documented rules per entity; financial records are never overwritten silently — they're flagged for review.	Must	SDD 5.3
SYN-03	Field devices cache the current approved FX rate so offline screens can show USD equivalents; the server re-checks on sync.	Should	New
USSD-01	USSD menus in English and Chichewa: savings balance, loan status, mini-statement, loan application, service request. PIN on every session.	Must	A1 §2(m)
USSD-02	USSD amounts are shown in MWK only, to fit the 160-character limit.	Must	SDD 6.2

4.9Access control & audit trail

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
SEC-01	Role-based access with data scope by national, district, cooperative or self.	Must	A1 §2(j)
SEC-02	Multi-factor authentication for admin, finance and HQ executive roles.	Must	SDD 7.2
SEC-03	Tamper-evident logs of logins, failed attempts, profile edits, loan approvals, disbursements, deletions and FX rate changes — with user ID, timestamp and IP.	Must	A5 §1(c)

4.10Billing meters

The Agreement charges USD 10.00 per registered member and 1.00% on project funding transactions, invoiced monthly in USD or MWK (Agreement §10).

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
BIL-01	Count chargeable members per month using the Annex 2 §2 rules (committed, mandatory fields complete, unique).	Must	A2 §2
BIL-02	Meter project funding transactions (seed capital, grants, revolving funds) once at ledger allocation; exclude loan repayments, savings deposits, internal transfers and error reversals.	Must	A2 §3
BIL-03	Produce the monthly Platform Billing Audit Report within 5 business days of month end.	Must	A2 §4
BIL-04	Where COMSIP pays in MWK, convert the USD invoice using the reference bank's selling rate on the invoice date and print it on the invoice.	Must	§10.6

COMSIP Malawi on ISEP · SRS v1.07

05Currency engine (MWK ⇄ USD)

COMSIP runs its books in Kwacha, but donors fund and report in dollars and Waltergates invoices in dollars. The engine keeps one source of truth in MWK, keeps the original amount and rate on every foreign-currency transaction, and lets users convert and report in USD without changing the books.

5.1Principles

MWK is the functional currency. Every ledger balance is held in MWK.
Keep the original. A USD transaction stores its USD amount, the rate used and the MWK result. None of these change later.
One approved rate per day per type. Buying, mid and selling rates come from a named source and are approved by a second person.
Say which rate you used. Every USD figure on screen or in a report shows its rate and date.

5.2Requirements

ID	Requirement	Priority	Source
FX-01	Support MWK (default) and USD as ledger currencies; further currencies can be added by configuration.	Must	A1 §2(h)
FX-02	Keep a rate table with date, source, buying, mid and selling rate, status (draft / approved / superseded), maker and checker.	Must	New
FX-03	Finance staff enter rates (maker); the Finance Manager approves them (checker). The same user cannot do both.	Must	A5 §1
FX-04	Optionally import daily rates automatically from the reference bank or Reserve Bank of Malawi feed; imported rates still need approval.	Could · CR	New
FX-05	Block posting of USD transactions when there is no approved rate for the value date; warn when the rate is older than 2 business days.	Must	New
FX-06	On posting a USD transaction, store original amount, currency, rate ID, rate value, rate type and the MWK amount.	Must	New
FX-07	Provide a converter (web and Android) for MWK ⇄ USD in both directions with a choice of buying, mid or selling rate. It's for information only and posts nothing.	Must	R4
FX-08	Provide a display-currency switch (MWK / USD) on dashboards and reports. Switching never changes stored values.	Must	R4
FX-09	Reports in USD offer two bases: historical (each line at its booked rate) and closing (all balances at the period-end mid rate). The basis is printed in the report footer.	Must	New
FX-10	Calculate realised and unrealised FX gains/losses on USD-held programme funds at month end and post them to configured GL accounts.	Should · CR	New
FX-11	Log every rate entry, approval, override and correction in the audit trail (SEC-03). Approved rates can't be edited — only superseded.	Must	A5 §1(c)

5.3Calculation rules

Rule	Definition
Rate expression	MWK per 1 USD, stored with 6 decimal places.
MWK → USD	usd = round(mwk ÷ rate, 2)
USD → MWK	mwk = round(usd × rate, 2)
Rounding	Banker's rounding (half-even) to 2 decimals in both currencies; use decimal arithmetic, never floating point.
Default rate type	Donor inflows: buying rate (what COMSIP receives). Payments out in USD: selling rate. Reporting and the converter default: mid.

Worked example — SSRLP grant of US$ 40,000.00 received 03 Oct 2026 Approved rate FX-2026-10-03-01 · buying 1,734.000000 MWK posted = 40,000.00 × 1,734.000000 = MK 69,360,000.00 Stored : orig 40,000.00 USD · rate_id FX-2026-10-03-01 · type BUY · mwk 69,360,000.00 1% fee meter : MK 693,600.00 (BIL-02 — inbound allocation, charged once)

Rates shown are illustrative; live rates come from COMSIP's approved rate table.

COMSIP Malawi on ISEP · SRS v1.08

06External interfaces

Interface	Purpose	Notes
Airtel Money, TNM Mpamba	Collections and disbursements	Webhook callbacks; idempotency key per transaction
COMSIP commercial bank gateway	Bank disbursements and settlement	Credentials by M3; merchant fees are COMSIP's (A1 §6)
USSD / SMS aggregator (e.g. Africa's Talking)	Member USSD sessions; PIN and alert SMS	Short code acquired by COMSIP
FX rate source	Daily reference rates	Manual entry at Go-Live; automated feed via FX-04 (CR)
ISEP shell	Country routing and branding	No personal data crosses this boundary

07Non-functional requirements

ID	Requirement	Source
NFR-01	Monthly availability of 99.5%, excluding scheduled maintenance (22:00–04:00 CAT, 48 h notice for >30 min).	§12.2, 12.5
NFR-02	Daily incremental and weekly full backups, AES-256, off-site replica, 30-day retention. RPO ≤ 24 h, RTO ≤ 48 h.	§12.3–12.4
NFR-03	TLS for all traffic; AES-256 at rest for IDs, banking data, passwords, biometrics; Bcrypt password hashing.	A5 §1(a)
NFR-04	Quarterly penetration tests; continuous vulnerability scanning; breach notice to COMSIP within 72 h.	A5 §1(d) · §13.4
NFR-05	Web pages load in under 3 s on 3G for 95% of requests; API p95 under 800 ms; USSD response under 2 s.	SDD 13
NFR-06	Scale to at least 250,000 members and 50 concurrent sync batches without degrading NFR-05.	SDD 13
NFR-07	All user-facing text available in English and Chichewa; dates DD MMM YYYY; amounts with currency code or symbol.	A1 §2(m)
NFR-08	On exit: full SQL and CSV export within 30 days, then NIST SP 800-88 deletion.	A5 §2
NFR-09	Support: helpdesk 08:30–17:30 CAT business days; Severity 1 response within 2 business hours, resolution within 2 business days.	A3

08Data requirements

Entity	Key fields
Member	member_id, national_id (enc), names, gender, dob, phone, district, ta, village, group_id, status, consent_at
Group / Cooperative	group_id, type (SLG / cluster / coop), district, ta, registered_on, leaders[], share_capital
Loan	loan_id, product_id, borrower (member / group), principal_mwk, rate, schedule[], status, par_days
Ledger entry	entry_id, account, amount_mwk, orig_amount, orig_ccy, fx_rate_id, fx_rate, fx_type, value_date, posted_by
FX rate	fx_rate_id, date, base USD, quote MWK, buy, mid, sell, source, status, maker_id, checker_id, approved_at
Programme allocation	alloc_id, programme, beneficiary_id, asset_type, amount_mwk, orig_ccy, fee_metered

COMSIP Malawi on ISEP · SRS v1.09

09Acceptance & traceability

UAT runs in the staging environment with anonymised data. COMSIP has 10 business days per handover. A module is accepted with zero open Material Defects (Annex 4).

Milestone	Window	Requirements covered
M1 Kickoff & governance	≤ 10 BD	—
M2 Requirements confirmation	≤ 30 BD	Sign-off of this SRS
M3 Core customisation	≤ 75 BD	ISEP-01–08, MEM, GOV, SAV, MF, SSR, FX-01–09, FX-11, AND, SYN, USSD
M4 Staging & UAT handover	≤ 90 BD	All Must items deployed to staging
M5 UAT sign-off	≤ 110 BD	Test scenarios incl. FX worked example, tenant isolation test
M6 Training	≤ 120 BD	2 admin + 4 TOT sessions, incl. FX rate maker-checker
M7 Go-Live	≤ 130 BD	Migration cutover, gateways live, BIL meters on
M8 Stabilisation	+90 days	Should items; RPT, AUD-03, SYN-03

9.1Key acceptance tests

Tenant isolation: a Ghana ISEP token calling a COMSIP endpoint gets 401; no COMSIP record appears in the ISEP directory.
Country routing: choosing Malawi on the landing page opens the COMSIP portal; the choice persists after reload.
FX posting: the worked example in §5.3 posts exactly MK 69,360,000.00 and stores the rate ID.
FX control: the same user cannot both enter and approve a rate; posting a USD transaction without an approved rate is blocked.
Offline: register 20 members offline, reconnect, all sync with zero loss and duplicates flagged.

10Open issues & assumptions

#	Item	Owner
OI-1	Name the reference commercial bank for FX rates and invoice conversion.	COMSIP Finance
OI-2	Confirm whether FX-04 (automatic rate feed) and FX-10 (FX gain/loss) are wanted — both need a Change Request.	COMSIP / WGL
OI-3	Confirm URL pattern for the Malawi tenant (sub-path or sub-domain).	WGL
OI-4	Confirm data residency choice (South Africa region) and MACRA transfer approach.	COMSIP Legal
OI-5	Provide Chichewa translations review panel for USSD and app text.	COMSIP

11Approval

Signing below confirms this SRS as the Approved Requirements Specification for Milestone M2.

For Waltergates Ghana Limited
Name: ______________________
Title: ______________________
Signature & date: ____________

For COMSIP Cooperative Union Limited
Name: ______________________
Title: ______________________
Signature & date: ____________

COMSIP Malawi on ISEP · SRS v1.010

COMSIP Malawi on ISEP. Dedicated ISDBMS tenant with MWK ⇄ USD currency engine.

About this document

Revision history

Priority key

01Introduction

1.1Purpose

1.2Scope

1.3Definitions

02Overall description

2.1Product perspective

2.2User classes

2.3Operating environment

2.4Constraints

2.5Dependencies

03ISEP integration & tenancy

04Functional requirements

4.1Member management

4.2Cluster & cooperative governance

4.3Savings

4.4COMSIV microfinance

4.5SSRLP & livelihood programmes

4.6Audit, compliance & M&E

4.7Reporting & analytics

4.8Channels

4.9Access control & audit trail

4.10Billing meters

05Currency engine (MWK ⇄ USD)

5.1Principles

5.2Requirements

5.3Calculation rules

06External interfaces

07Non-functional requirements

08Data requirements

09Acceptance & traceability

9.1Key acceptance tests

10Open issues & assumptions

11Approval