United Bank for Africa (UBA), which serves 22 countries from its headquarters in Nigeria, recently unveiled Leo, “an artificial intelligence personality meant to address any type of banking concerns” via the Facebook Messenger app from US-based technology firm Facebook. UBA customers that also have a Facebook account may use the “chat banking” service to perform range of actions that includes opening accounts, checking account balances, transferring funds, buying mobile airtime, confirming transactions, applying for loans and freezing accounts. For new customers, the system only requires the lowest level of know-your-customer data, which allows for transactions of up to NGN 50,000 (USD 140).
In describing the motivation for the product, UBA Group Managing Director Kennedy Uzoka cited “the bank’s ‘customer first’ philosophy, where we are doing things not the way we like, but focusing on what the customers want, where they want it, and in the exact platform they want it.” He continued, “Leo, being an intelligent personality, will give you feedback instantaneously as you transact your business on the platform. A solution that is from the customer’s standpoint and is easy to use by anyone.” The pursuit of ease-of-use is consistent with reaching one of Leo’s target groups, “the unbanked populace.”
The service includes various security features, including automatically generated, temporary passwords for each transaction.
As of June 2017, UBA Group reports total assets of NGN 3.7 trillion (USD 10 billion), after-tax profit of NGN 42 billion (USD 117 million), return on assets of 2.4 percent and return on equity of 18 percent.
Sources and additional resources
The Guardian (Nigeria) story
https://guardian.ng/business-services/ubas-leo-and-digital-banking-for-financial-inclusion-in-nigeria/
UBA “At a Glance,” August 2017
https://www.ubagroup.com/upload/publication/20170907033919304hbvqbxhw88/20170907033853938j.pdf
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