Field notes

What live USSD services have taught us about bookings and payments

Lessons from building USSD journeys for transport, event reservations, Wi-Fi vouchers and paid voting in Ghana.

Different services share the same hard parts

BDK Ventures uses USSD for traveller bookings and seat reservations. Karimens Enterprise uses it for graduation package reservations. JomensWifi sells hotspot vouchers, while Odukro Boatemaa Educational Complex used it for paid voting.

The menus differ, but each service must preserve the customer's choice, handle payment delays, prevent duplicate fulfilment and send a useful confirmation.

  • BDK Ventures: 100+ confirmed traveller bookings in a completed seasonal campaign
  • Karimens Enterprise: 590+ paid or collected reservations across three graduation periods
  • JomensWifi: 500+ paid voucher orders and voucher messages
  • Face of OBEC 2026: 500+ verified votes at the reviewed snapshot

Payment success must come from the provider

A customer reaching the last USSD screen does not prove that payment succeeded. The service has to wait for the provider result, match it to the right transaction and apply the business action once.

That may mean reserving a seat, issuing a voucher, adding votes or confirming an event package. Repeat callbacks must not repeat the fulfilment.

Staff still need a place to work

When a customer calls about a payment or missing message, staff need more than a transaction total. They need the customer journey, payment state, fulfilment result and message status together.

For that reason, our USSD work includes an operating dashboard rather than ending at the menu code.

Seasonal services should fit seasonal businesses

Transport and graduation services do not always operate at the same volume throughout the year. Their hosting and support arrangement can therefore be active only for the months in which the service is running, where that model fits the project.

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