October 26-27 | Open Source in Energy Access Symposium Hackathon | Kigali, Rwanda

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WhatsApp Channel Plugin for MicroPowerManager (MPM)

Build a MicroPowerManager (MPM) plugin that delivers MPM's existing notifications over the WhatsApp Business API.

This challenge is based on MPM issue #1340.

Abstract and goal

MicroPowerManager (MPM) is an open-source CRM platform for managing off-grid energy deployments. It already sends transactional messages — payment receipts, low-balance warnings, token deliveries — over SMS and email. But across most of the markets MPM serves (sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia), WhatsApp is the dominant messaging channel. It's how customers already talk to family, to merchants, and to support. SMS is the fallback, not the front door.

For operators, that gap costs money in real ways: SMS unit costs are high relative to data-channel alternatives, delivery rates on some networks are poor and silently so, and customers who would read a WhatsApp message from a known business ignore an SMS from an unfamiliar number.

This challenge aims to close that gap by building a MicroPowerManager plugin that delivers MPM's existing notifications over the WhatsApp Business API, and lets operators configure it the way they configure any other channel today. The plugin should:

• Deliver MPM's existing notifications (e.g. payment receipts, low-balance warnings) over WhatsApp.
• Let operators enable and configure the channel from MPM's plugin admin with their own WhatsApp Business credentials — no code changes required.
• Respect WhatsApp's business rules: real opt-in, approved message templates, and the 24-hour session window.
• Make delivery failures visible, with a clear fallback posture (fall back to SMS, queue for retry, or log).

The result gives operators a lower-cost, higher-engagement channel to reach customers where they already are, using open-source tooling end to end.

Expected outcomes

Create a Feature Request and an accompanying PR on the MPM repository to:

• Integrate a WhatsApp channel plugin on MPM, following the shape of MPM's existing notification channels.
• Allow an operator to enable and configure the plugin from MPM's plugin admin with their own WhatsApp Business credentials.
• Deliver at least two existing MPM notifications (for example, payment receipt and low-balance warning) to a real WhatsApp number via the plugin.
• Log and handle delivery failures visibly, according to the fallback design the team chooses.

Required knowledge

Stack

• PHP/Laravel backend.
• Vue.js 2 frontend.
• WhatsApp Business Platform (Meta Cloud API or an aggregator such as Twilio, 360dialog, Infobip).

Programming languages

• PHP (Laravel)
• JavaScript

Helpful experiences

• Backend/API integration with PHP/Laravel.
• Knowledge of frontend development.
• Experience integrating messaging APIs (WhatsApp Business API, Twilio, or similar) and handling webhooks.

Person of contact supporting this challenge

• Obinna Ikeh

Getting started

• Join the OSEAS Discord server: https://community.oseas.org/
• Introduce yourself in the #introductions channel and join the relevant channels for this challenge"
  • #micropowermanager
• Read the documentation:
  • https://micropowermanager.io/get-started.html
  • https://github.com/EnAccess/micropowermanager/
  • EnAccess/micropowermanager#1340
  • http://micropowermanager.io/development/plugins.html
  • https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp