07 January 2019
In what’s been hailed as a “first for Nigeria”, United Bank for Africa (UBA) has launched its Leo chat solution on WhatsApp.
UBA has already been successful with chat services on Facebook Messenger and now hopes to replicate that on WhatsApp.
It’s claimed customers can now conduct their banking activities in a “secure and convenient” manner by communicating with UBA in a verified chat.
The bank has enabled this by using the Transact system from authorised WhatsApp Business Solution provider, Clickatell.
The system includes the vendor’s .Control chat platform which has been integrated with the WhatsApp business API.
Clickatell says .Control allows banks to roll out commonly used banking activities like checking balances, money transfer and purchasing digital products and services across popular communication channels like USSD and now WhatsApp.
Additional channels are planned for 2019.
It also claims that the platform offers flexibility, reliability, fraud and risk management for banks, as well as a convenient on demand banking capability for consumers wherever they are.
Austine Abolusoro, group head of UBA online banking, says:
“United Bank for Africa is a technology-driven institution with vast knowledge in the business that we do. Leo, being a tested, dependable and intelligent personality, will replicate on WhatsApp the success it has experienced on the Facebook Messenger platform. It is a solution that is from the customer’s standpoint, easy to use by anyone regardless of demography.”
According to Clickatell, Nigeria is recognised as “ground zero” for global financial inclusion with a rapid accelerating move from the informal economy to the formal sector.
Citing a Central Bank of Nigeria survey from 2016, it says 46.9 million people in Nigeria or 48.6 per cent of the adult population are now formally served by banks or similar.
The company states:
“The introduction of chat banking from Clickatell is accelerating the banking adoption curve by eliminating the business and operational overhead required to roll out convenience banking across popular communication channels and in different countries.”
