By Dipo Olowookere
London-based digital money transfer provider, SimbaPay, has announced the launch of an AI (Artificial Intelligence) powered chatbot service which now makes International money transfer (remittance) possible with only an SMS.
The SimbaPay chatbot will also enable 24/7 instant customer service for its customers across Africa and Europe.
“We’re thrilled at the prospect of the chatbot service resolving most customer enquiries instantly at any time of day or night” said Daniel Howard, CTO for SimbaPay. “Another major objective we achieved with the chatbot service is that it also works without internet. This means customers with a mobile phone, even a basic phone without internet access, can access the SimbaPay chatbot using SMS.”
Speaking on the Interswitch partnership with SimbaPay, Paul Mwaura Ndichu, CEO Interswitch East Africa (K) said, “Interswitch is proud to be associated with a company as innovative as SimbaPay which is continually looking to improve and expand its product offering. We will continue to collaborate in development of products and services that contribute to expansion of the fintech space”.
Together with Interswitch, SimbaPay’s B2B division offers its instant remittance technology to banks & telcos who want to provide their customers with a modern digital remittance service.
SimbaPay platform senders can now send money with just an SMS. All they require is the recipient’s phone number and the chatbot will automatically obtain the recipient bank account or mobile money details.
With this launch, recipients of money transfers from SimbaPay now also have the flexibility of choosing whether to get their cash delivered to their Mobile Money wallet (e.g. M-Pesa, MTN Money, Airtel Money) or their bank account.
In some instances, recipients may not have a smartphone or internet data bundles or airtime credit. To address this, the SimbaPay chatbot is accessible through free of charge SMS.
Some of the banks that offer SimbaPay powered remittance services have millions of customers and therefore receive a high volume of enquiries. The chatbot provides the scalability to handle thousands of customer enquiries per hour.
The SimbaPay chatbot service is also accessible on SimbaPay’s social media channels including Facebook. Popular enquiries that are now resolved by the chatbot include exchange rate queries, how to send money instructions and coverage enquiries.
Last year SimbaPay was nominated as the Best Remittance Service in Africa at the Digital Impact Awards Africa. In consideration of its social impact, this month SimbaPay was selected to receive investment from Katapult, a Norwegian based social impact fund.
In 2016, SimbaPay was selected as one of 10 companies to join the first ever Barclays Accelerator powered by Techstars in Africa. The app continues to disrupt the cross-border remittance industry with its focus on Financial Inclusion, extreme speed and convenience.
How SimbaPay Works
To send money via SimbaPay, customers living in activated African & European countries simply download the SimbaPay app from the Apple AppStore or Google Play. App users can then proceed to securely make money transfers straight from any smartphone, tablet or computer.
Together with Interswitch, SimbaPay’s B2B division offers its instant remittance technology to banks & telcos who want to provide their customers with a modern digital remittance service.
Aduragbemi Omiyale 
Adedapo Adesanya