Dwumadie - Freelancer Marketplace with Milestone Escrow
Escrow-Backed Freelancer Marketplace for Ghana
Designed and built a clickable freelancer marketplace for an Accra operator: clients post jobs, compare proposals from vetted Ghanaian designers, developers and translators, and fund every milestone or hourly week into escrow held by a licensed payment partner, released only on approval, auto-approval or a dispute decision.
Most of our work is under NDA. Per agreement, we can share the work but not the company details - all names and identifying information shown here have been changed.
Impact
Client home, the jobs board with a Post a job sheet, job and proposals with a quick view panel, contracts, and the contract workspace for both fixed-price milestones and hourly timesheets.
A submitted milestone shows the date it approves itself unless the client approves, asks for changes or opens a dispute. Hourly weeks stay open for review until Wednesday 23:59 Accra time.
The client marketplace fee on each funding and the freelancer service fee on each release, broken out in the Fund escrow and Approve and release sheets with the net paid to the freelancer.
13 jobs, 26 proposals, 13 invites and 10 contracts with 16 milestones, 8 hourly timesheet weeks and 1 open dispute, all in GHS for a fictional Accra produce delivery client.
The Problem
Sakumono Ridge began as a WhatsApp community and a job board. Clients paid freelancers by mobile money in advance or on completion, so one side always carried the risk: freelancers delivered and were never paid, or clients paid deposits to people who disappeared. There was no written scope, good freelancers took clients off the board, and the team could not tell fake or reused accounts from real ones.
Our Solution
Dwumadie puts each engagement on one record: the job, the accepted proposal, the contract terms, every delivery and time entry, and money held in escrow until the agreed step is approved. Clients fund before work starts, freelancers see the money is there, and every release, change request or dispute happens against the same contract.
The Challenge: Trust Between Strangers, in Cedis
Dwumadie launches in Ghana with around 4,500 verified freelancers in design, software development and translation, and about 900 active clients. The product has to make a stranger safe to hire and safe to work for, inside Ghanaian payments, identity and data rules.
Money Held, but Not by the Platform
Payment services in Ghana are regulated by the Bank of Ghana under Act 987, so client money is collected and held by a licensed payment partner or bank. Dwumadie keeps a ledger of each contract's share and must show every party where their money sits.
Two Ways to Pay for Work
Fixed-price contracts release milestone by milestone, hourly contracts week by week within a pre-funded cap. Each needs its own funding, approval window, auto-approval and refund of unused hours, all on the same escrow.
Keeping Deals on the Platform
The old board lost its best freelancers once a first job went well. Jobs and messages that share phone numbers or ask for payment outside Dwumadie have to be caught before they go live, without blocking honest posts.
Identity, Contracts and Tax Still Open
Payees are verified with the Ghana Card, personal data falls under Act 843, click-to-accept contracts rely on Act 772, and withholding tax and worker classification are not settled. The design has to record what is needed now and leave room for what counsel decides.
Our Approach: From Escrow Rules to a Clickable Marketplace
Spec and Rules Research
Mapped 8 roles from client and freelancer to KYC, trust and safety, disputes and finance staff, 56 screens across public, client, freelancer and back office, and the data model for jobs, proposals, contracts, milestones, timesheets, fundings, releases, a double-entry escrow ledger and disputes. Wrote down the rules the design follows: Acts 843, 987, 772, 896 and 651, Ghana Card KYC, and Sakumono Ridge's own fee and approval policy.
Clickable Demo on a Production UI Kit
Built the client side's 5 key screens on a production dashboard kit: home with blocking banners and to-do cards, the jobs board with the moderation pre-check, proposals with shortlist, archive and quick view, the contracts table, and the contract workspace with Fund escrow, Approve and release, Request changes, Review timesheet and Open dispute sheets. All actions run on local state.
What a Production Build Adds
Integration with a payment provider such as Paystack, Flutterwave or Hubtel, mobile money collection and payouts, a licensed escrow partner, Smile ID for Ghana Card and liveness checks, sanctions screening, scanned file storage, SMS and email. Plus the freelancer app, the 26-screen back office for KYC, moderation, ledger, reconciliation, disputes and payouts, role-based auth and an audit log.
Why It Works: The Money Is Always Visible
Escrow on Every Screen
The sidebar shows total escrow held and who holds it, and each contract shows escrow held, paid to date, remaining budget and the contract total. Banners at the top of home name what blocks work, such as a milestone to fund or a timesheet due today.
Deadlines Act for the Waiting Side
A delivery shows its files, message and the date it approves automatically, so a freelancer is never left waiting on a silent client. An hourly week shows its review deadline and returns unused pre-funded hours to the client when it is approved.
Proposals Carry Trust Signals
Each proposal card shows the bid, duration, rating, job success score, verified tick, required skills test badges and a Boosted label. The quick view adds the cover letter, screening answers, proposed milestones and scanned attachments before a client sends an offer.
Off-Platform Deals Caught Early
Posting a job checks the text for Ghanaian phone numbers and off-platform payment phrases and sends a match to moderation with the reason shown, while the notice tells every client which jobs are removed.
Related case studies
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Posodi - Peer-to-Peer Rental Marketplace with Deposit Holds and Photo Evidence
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Enterprise Software Engineering - Human + AI
Contact Us
© 2026 - Copyright. All Rights reserved Oceanlab
Location
Global Headquarters
21 Merchant Road, 3rd Floor, Singapore 058267
Main corporate office and leadership operations
North America Office
548 Market Street, PMB 12345, San Francisco, CA 94104
Client operations and business development
India Office
402 Shivalik Shilp II, SG Highway, Ahmedabad 380015
Engineering and delivery center
Enterprise Software Engineering - Human + AI
Contact Us
Locations
Global Headquarters
21 Merchant Road, 3rd Floor, Singapore 058267
Main corporate office and leadership operations
North America Office
548 Market Street, PMB 12345, San Francisco, CA 94104
Client operations and business development
India Office
402 Shivalik Shilp II, SG Highway, Ahmedabad 380015
Engineering and delivery center
© 2026 - Copyright. All Rights reserved Oceanlab