How this platform is built, secured and maintained
Most learning platforms never tell you what they are made of. This one does. Here is how Richesses d'Afrique E-Learning actually works underneath — where your data lives, who can reach it, and who keeps the whole thing running.
One system, not a pile of plugins
A single design system
The public site, the member portal and the administration console are three applications that share one component library and one set of design tokens. A change to a button or a colour is made once and appears everywhere — which is why the platform stays coherent as it grows.
Bilingual by construction
English and French are not an afterthought bolted on with a translation plugin. Every interface string and every piece of content carries both languages in the database, so a page is never half-translated and search engines see a proper alternate for each one.
Built on foundations that will still be here
React and Next.js for the interface, PostgreSQL for the data, Stripe and PayPal for payments — mainstream, well-documented technology with long support horizons. Nothing here depends on a niche tool that disappears when its author loses interest.
Usable before it is decorative
Keyboard navigation, visible focus outlines, skip links, and full respect for the operating system's reduced-motion setting. The target is WCAG 2.1 AA, and contrast is checked against the brand palette rather than assumed.
The parts that matter when something goes wrong
Your data stays in Europe
The database and file storage run in a European region (Paris), under the GDPR, with a data processing agreement and a documented list of sub-processors. Nothing is copied to another continent for convenience.
Access is enforced by the database
Permissions are not a check in the interface that a clever request could skip. Row-level security policies live in the database itself, so a learner cannot read another learner's records even if every layer above were bypassed. Administrators can add two-factor authentication to their accounts.
Your data is yours, and you can take it
Members can request an export of their personal data and ask for their account to be deleted, in open formats, without writing to support first. Retention periods are defined and enforced automatically rather than left to run forever.
Maintained, not abandoned
Security patches, dependency upgrades and platform compatibility are ongoing work with a named party responsible for them. Certificates issued here carry a serial that anyone can verify publicly, so a qualification stays checkable long after the course ends.
From an idea to something you can use
Decided in the admin console
Courses, pages, menus, pricing and automations are managed by the RDAE team in an administration console — not by filing a request with a developer and waiting. The platform is theirs to steer day to day.
Built once, in the shared system
Anything genuinely new is built as a shared component and takes its colours, spacing and typography from the design tokens. That is what stops the platform drifting into a dozen slightly different styles.
Released with the interface and the data together
A feature ships complete: the screen, the server logic, the database migration and both languages, in one release. Half-finished features do not reach you.
Designed, built and maintained by Narikia
This platform is the work of Narikia UG, a software studio based in Germany. Richesses d'Afrique E-Learning runs on a platform Narikia develops and licenses — the same engine, shaped around the brand and the audience it serves.
The arrangement is deliberate, and it is worth understanding. RDAE owns its brand, its content and its data outright and operates the platform under a perpetual licence; Narikia keeps building the engine, ships the security patches and carries the upgrades forward. Neither side is renting a storefront from a third party, and neither had to start from nothing.
Jay N. Kalala
Founder, Narikia UG
Narikia was founded by Jay N. Kalala, a Congolese entrepreneur and engineer based in Germany. He wrote the architecture this platform is built on — a specification that runs to thirty-six chapters — and remains its principal maintainer.
Frequently asked questions
Who built this platform?
Narikia UG, a software studio in Germany founded by Jay N. Kalala. Narikia designed, built and continues to maintain the platform, which Richesses d'Afrique E-Learning operates under licence.
Where is my personal data stored?
In a European region (Paris), under the GDPR. A data processing agreement is in place and the sub-processors we rely on — hosting, database, payments and email — are documented. You can request an export or deletion of your data at any time.
Is everything available in both English and French?
Yes. Both languages are stored alongside each other for every interface string and every piece of content, so pages are not partially translated, and each language has its own address for search engines.
Could my organisation have a platform like this one?
Possibly — Narikia licenses the platform to organisations outside online education for the African diaspora, which is the field Richesses d'Afrique operates in exclusively. If you run a training organisation, an academy or a membership business and are weighing building against renting, that is a conversation worth having with Narikia directly.
Questions about the platform?
For anything about your account, your courses or your data, talk to the Richesses d'Afrique team. For questions about the software itself — how it was built, or licensing it — Narikia is the right address.