Without a doubt, the digital revolution in the financial space is one that is sweeping across the globe, reshaping the industry’s vision on banking based on some fundamental elements, namely: proficiency, speed, opening hours, and all round total efficiency.
Having thoroughly understood that the financial industry is experiencing a deep transformation, with customers’ needs shifting from simple banking solutions to ‘ more advanced seamless financialsolutions’. Pan African financial institution, United Bank for Africa, (UBA) a bank that has scored many firsts in the industry and is ranked among the top three banks in the financial space once again showed why it is ranked highly by scoring yet another first not only in Nigeria but in Africa, with the introduction of Leo, an innovation that is capable of revolutionizing the way banking is done in Africa.
Having, invested heavily in building a robust and secure e-banking platform that supports its e-banking operations globally through strategic partnerships with various local and international organizations, you could only expect the bar to keep going higher.
Beyond being active on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Google Plus, and also running a corporate blog, Africa’s global bank is continuously innovating and developing strategies aimed at making banking seamless and effortless for millions of its existing and potential customers, while also ensuring utmost safety of their transactions.
While some banks are still sticking their head in the sand, United Bank for Africa, amongst many, was quick to realize that social media is fundamentally changing the way people communicate making it pertinent, that the total customer experience needs be considered when providing value propositions. It is with this awareness that the Pan-African financial institution moved to change the face of e-banking with the introduction of Leo, the UBA Chat Banker that enables customers make use of their social media accounts to carry out key banking transactions.
The bank’s Group Managing Director, Kennedy Uzoka, intelligently noted during the lunch of Leo that, customer experience needs to be considered when providing value propositions hence, in no distant time, instant payments will greatly foster innovation in payments and reshape the way we do payments in the coming years, adding value and great satisfaction for customers, who have now become our hallmark at UBA.
Today, barely four months after its launch, testimonials are bound with this new artificial intelligence banker, millions of UBA customers across Africa can now perform series of bank transactions through the Facebook messenger chat platform. All you need to do is ‘chat.’ Yes! Chat with LEO. Like we do on a daily basis with family, friends and business partners. LEO comes in handy for business individuals and organizations who have limited time to visit a bank to process banking services and requests. With easily accessible data service/network, you can chat with Leo on the go and perform your normal bank transactions such as opening new accounts, checking account balance, Airtime recharge/Top up, Fund transfer, Payment of bills, Quick application for loans, request for mini statements, etc.
Following this growing pedigree and massive impact on Nigeria and by extension, Africa’s financial space, Leo got a well -deserved recognition that was gleefully given him, by the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, at the tech giant’s F8 conference for developers.
“Leo is doing incredible things,” Zuckerberg reportedly said. When he reached a slider on Business and Bots, Zuckerberg said Facebook has seen good momentum for messenger business with more than 300,000 business bots and 8 billion messages exchanged between them and users. But out of the over 300,000 bots mentioned, Leo was the prime example used.
Launched by the United Bank for Africa (UBA) in January this year, the UBA Leo ‘Chat Banker’. Leo is an artificial intelligence (AI) powered bot that performs banking transactions on Facebook.
Leo lets you open new accounts, receive instant transaction notifications, check their balances on the go, transfer funds and airtime top up. You can also confirm cheques, pay bills, apply for loans, freeze accounts, ask for mini statements, among other things and even check the weather.
It would be recalled that When Leo was introduced, it was the first time that a financial institution in Africa ever came up with this manner of solution to simplify the way customers transact.
Leo lets you open new accounts, receive instant transaction notifications, check their balances on the go, transfer funds and airtime top up. You can also confirm cheques, pay bills, apply for loans, freeze accounts, ask for mini statements, among other things and even check the weather.
Designed to work within the platforms people are already familiar with, Leo has already taken off on Facebook Messenger. In the nearest future, the app is expected to show up on other social media platforms and all it takes to enjoy the services is simply to have a Facebook account.
Apart from being your perfect virtual banker, Leo also doubles as the perfect buddy and lifestyle application.
With Leo, an individual can carry out money transfers and airtime top-up on the go, pay for Uber, as well as perform other transactions like payment of bills, data top-up, mini-statements, loan applications, cheque confirmation, account freezing, among others right on their mobile phones.
To experience the ease, simplicity, and excellence of a banker and friend, log on to the web or mobile versions of your Facebook Messenger, type “UBA ChatBanking” into the search area of the messenger app and click on the icon, the power to transact with ease is at your finger-tips.
