AI Mobile Payments Platform for FuturePay
Yellow partnered with FuturePay, a Nigerian fintech company, to build a mobile payments ecosystem for consumers, merchants, and sub-merchants.
24/7 AI-powered assistance
We transformed customer support from conventional workflows into 24/7 in-app assistance, answering FAQs, explaining FuturePay functionality, and helping users understand transaction statuses at any time.
58% faster KYC investigation
While using Claude Sonnet we reduced suspicious KYC review time from 12 minutes to 5 minutes per submission by analyzing KYC information, highlighting potential inconsistencies, and preparing cases for human review.
100% user confirmation for AI-assisted payments
We added AI assistance to traditional payment workflows by preparing payment interactions while keeping 100% of money-moving actions subject to explicit user confirmation through an authorized mechanism.
45% less manual operations work
Admin AI reduced manual operations work by 45% by replacing fully manual case review and summarization with AI-assisted classification, case summaries, and recommended next steps before human approval.
About the project
FuturePay, a Nigerian fintech company, approached Yellow to build a mobile payments platform for consumers, merchants, and sub-merchants across Nigeria. The goal was to create a secure and scalable ecosystem that supports digital payments, merchant operations, and financial services while complying with local regulatory requirements.
Beyond the core payment infrastructure, FuturePay wanted to introduce AI-powered assistants that could improve operational workflows and help compliance teams identify potential issues more efficiently.
The client had
Mobile-first payments platform
Instant consumer and merchant payments
Multiple payment and funding methods
Merchant and sub-merchant management
Strong security and compliance requirements
AI-powered support and operations
We were responsible for
Mobile app development
Backend payment infrastructure
Admin portal, wallets and virtual accounts
Merchant and sub-merchant management
QR, NFC, and USSD payments
AI-powered support and operations
Team
Project manager
2 mobile engineers
Backend engineer
AI engineer
QA engineer
AI-based features
AI-powered customer assistant
The in-app AI assistant, powered by Claude Sonnet, answers FAQs, explains FuturePay features, checks transaction statuses, provides contextual support, guides users through payment flows, and prepares payment actions for explicit user confirmation. It cannot independently execute money-moving actions.
Admin AI agent
Claude Sonnet supports FuturePay’s internal operations by identifying failed transactions, flagging suspicious KYC submissions and potential fraud signals, summarizing operational issues, drafting support responses, and generating reports. Sensitive administrative actions still require human approval.
How Claude Sonnet is used
FuturePay uses Anthropic Claude Sonnet as an intelligence layer across customer-facing and internal workflows.
Context processing
The application provides Claude with the context required for the specific workflow, like the user's support question, relevant transaction information, KYC information, or operational event data.
AI reasoning and assistance
Claude Sonnet interprets context and provides the right response or recommendation. It supports customers with product and transaction guidance and helps admins analyze risks, summarize issues, and draft responses.
Controlled actions
Claude does not directly authorize financial transactions. When an AI-assisted interaction involves moving money, the system creates the relevant action for the user to review rather than allowing the model to execute it independently.
Tech stack
Mobile
React Native, React, TypeScript, Kotlin, Swift
AI
Anthropic Claude Sonnet
KYC & security
ML Kit, Vision Camera, Biometrics
Payments
NFC tap-to-pay, QR payments
Development challenges and solutions
Building for a regulated financial environment
Challenge: FuturePay operates in a highly regulated industry. The platform needs to account for CBN requirements, KYC/AML processes, NDPR data protection, PCI DSS requirements, and integrations with Nigeria's financial infrastructure, including NIBSS.
Solution: We designed the platform around controlled transaction flows, identity verification, secure authentication, access controls, payment confirmation, and auditable operations. Compliance considerations were incorporated into the system architecture from the beginning.
Supporting multiple payment methods and user scenarios
Challenge: FuturePay needed to combine bank transfers, wallet payments, virtual accounts, QR transactions, NFC payments, cards, bills, scheduled payments, merchants, and sub-merchants inside one ecosystem.
Solution: We created a modular mobile and backend architecture that separates payment channels from the core account and transaction logic. This makes it easier to introduce additional payment methods and merchant capabilities as FuturePay expands.
Payments under unreliable connectivity
Challenge: Mobile connectivity is not always reliable, and some potential users may not have access to smartphones or consistently available mobile data.
Solution: We designed the payment ecosystem to support USSD alongside smartphone-based payment flows, expanding access beyond users who can depend on an Android or iOS application and continuous internet connectivity.
Introducing AI without giving it uncontrolled access to money
Challenge: A financial AI assistant becomes significantly more useful when it can understand transactions and help users perform financial tasks. However, allowing an LLM to authorize payments or sensitive administrative actions autonomously would introduce unacceptable risk.
Solution: We separated AI reasoning from financial authorization. Claude Sonnet can interpret requests, retrieve information, flag risks, recommend actions, and prepare workflows. But payment execution requires explicit customer confirmation through PIN or biometrics, while sensitive administrative actions require human approval.
Results
Yellow developed a secure mobile payments platform for FuturePay, combining instant transfers, virtual accounts, QR/NFC/USSD payments, merchant management, and AI-powered support and operations. By integrating Claude Sonnet, the platform reduced KYC investigation time, cut manual operations work, and introduced AI-assisted workflows while keeping all sensitive financial actions under user or human approval.
monthly cost.