Sterling Bank Plc, a Nigerian commercial bank, in collaboration with Clickatell, today announced that they have enabled their customers to conduct their banking through WhatsApp.
Customers can now initiate bank transfers, and airtime and bill payments, check balance and BVN enquiries, as well as statement generation directly on WhatsApp, the company says.
This is facilitated with the aid of Kiki, a chat banking solution developed by Clickatell. Designed to provide personalised service to every customer of the bank,Kiki possesses conversational intelligence and will answer questions related to personal finances once prompted. Kiki also connects customers directly to customer service, making dispute resolution seamless.
“Delivering banking on WhatsApp for instant messaging is desirous by our customers who want a reliable, convenient, and safe medium to perform basic banking transactions on their mobile devices. It eases the stress of moving between apps before transactions can be concluded,” Oladipo Alabede, Group Head of Digital Banking at Sterling Bank said
According to Alabede, WhatsApp is easy, safe, fast and secure. “It has improved security that prevents fraud and enables customers to have access to all their accounts. The service is designed for self-service registration and the customers can sign on from any location.”
The current features of the app include Sterling to Sterling and Sterling to other banks’ transfers, airtime top-up, bill payments, balance enquiry, BVN enquiry and statement generation, among others, he says.
Chat banking
According to Samson Isa, Director – West Africa for Clickatell, chat banking is the future of financial services, with bank customers preferring the channel for conducting routine banking, as it is fast, simple, and secure.
“We are proud to be leading this shift in financial services, along with customers like Sterling Bank,” he said.
Alabede added that the bank will soon enable a new set of features, as they are exploring ways to serve customers better with the introduction of micro lending, micro investment, account opening, card request, and credit rating, among others.
