Despite the harsh and rarely unpredictable business environment witnessed in the financial sector last year, United Bank for Africa (UBA Group) has continued to drive digital transformation and innovation with UBA’s chatbot LEO which now boasts of over 1 million users
As one of Nigeria’s longest standing and most respected financial institutions UBA, is a leading pan-African financial services group, with presence in 20 African countries, as well as the United Kingdom, the United States of America and France. UBA was incorporated in Nigeria as a limited liability company after taking over the assets of the British and French Bank Limited who had been operating in Nigeria since 1949.
The United Bank for Africa merged with Standard Trust Bank in 2005 and from a single country operation, UBA has become one of the leading providers of banking and other financial services on the African continent. The bank provides services to over 15 million customers globally, through one of the most diverse service channels in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 1,000 branches and customer touch points and robust online and mobile banking platforms. The asset is in excess of $19billion.
According to the Group Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer, United Bank for Africa, Kennedy Uzoka the bank’s strong management and un-matched commitment to service excellence. Has helped the bank to deploy innovative solutions that place customer’s first, using cutting edge technology for their collective satisfaction and excellent banking experience.
Emerging as Africa’s Best Digital Bank and the best Bank in Africa in 2017 category at the Euromoney awards in London, shows credence to the bank’s dominance in the digital banking space.
Uzoka said “for us at UBA, the award is quite an accomplishment, considering Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Facebook and President Emmanuel Macron of France’s recent endorsement both of which centred around highlighting the distinguishing value of UBA’s leading digital opportunities”.
“Also, our recent launch of Leo in 15 African countries is evidence that UBA has on its agenda, the objective of digital creativity especially in service for our trusted customer base across the African continent. This award reminds us as an institution not to relent in our pursuit of excellence and to continue to lead the new digital age in Africa, within the financial services industry.’’
UBA is a leading digital Bank, with a wide variety of innovative financial products to different customer segments, with over 70% of the Bank’s transactions on digital platforms. UBA promotes financial inclusion, finances SMEs, and also supports infrastructural development in different parts of Africa.
Interestingly, United Bank for Africa (UBA Group) kicked off the first session of the week-long Social Media Week Lagos 2019 with the announcement that its chatbot Leo now covers 17 African countries and has one million subscribers.
Leo was launched in January 2018 to enable customers of the bank have access to select banking services including account opening, loan applications, account balance checking, cheque confirmations, bill payment, account freezing and instant notifications
Described as an “alpha version” by digital enthusiasts, Leo has surpassed one million users on the bank’s mobile app, in just 12 months because of its numerous benefits and acceptability, a feat its close rivals have not been able to attain.
The AI-driven virtual assistant, which also has Facebook and WhatsApp banking capabilities, was first unveiled in January and today, one year later remains the preferred chat banker in Nigeria and across Africa where UBA is present , because it has clinically leap frogged others in every sense of it.
“The formulation of this product is consistent with the bank’s customer first philosophy, where we are doing things not the way we like, but focusing on what the customer want, where they want it and in the exact platform they want it,” Kennedy Uzoka, UBA’s managing director said at the unveiling of the chatbot in 2018.
The bank’s head of online banking, Augustine Abolusoro, in a presentation titled Game of Bots at Social Media Week 2019 disclosed that Leo is not just the first artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbot in Africa; it is also a multi-lingual chatbot with capability to speak languages like English, French, and Portuguese. The company plans to include Yoruba and other Nigerian languages very soon.
“Leo was developed with best in class AI technology: Natural language processing and machine learning,” says Abolusoro. “It enables financial inclusion.”
He continued, “As we continue to advance our work on AI-driven developments, it is important that we listen to our users today and further enhance Leo to align to client feedback in order to better meet and anticipate needs and even give them increased value as Leo clocks one,” Abolusoro added.
This milestone reflects the bank’s continued focus on providing industry-leading digital capabilities as part of its high-tech, high-touch client experience.
Everything learnt over the last one year of Leo’s work will help UBA improve on its digital offerings, says Abolusoro, Head of online banking, who assured customers of “nothing short of the very best innovation in the coming months”.
In May 2018, Mark Zuckerberg thrust Leo into global limelight when he used the chatbot as an illustration of how businesses were leveraging Facebook to connect better with their customers.
“Leo is doing incredible things,” Zuckerberg had said of Leo during his presentation.
Abolusoro noted that as a result of the feature, Leo which is also available on Facebook-owned WhatsApp has gained one million subscribers. Till date it has hosted 70 million conversations.
While 5 per cent of the subscriber population is within the age of 65 and above, an overwhelming 72 per cent are between 18 and 34 years.
“The Leo platform has the same kind of authentication you find on all our digital platforms,” Abolusoro said regarding concerns around privacy and cyber security.
In 12 months since he was launched, Leo has won several awards, including the Euromoney Award which aptly validates his dominance in the digital banking space. Euromoney is a globally renowned organisation which appraises more than 20 global product categories, best-in-class awards and the best Banks in over 100 countries around the world, recognising institutions that have demonstrated leadership, innovation, and momentum in the markets in which they operate.
With ever-increasing customer expectations of quick service and near real-time transactional support, United Bank for Africa (UBA) committed resources to Artificial Intelligence (AI) a year ago, birthing Leo, a Banking Chatbot that helps customers carry out key banking transactions anywhere, using mobile devices and personal computers.
“Our customers are increasingly asking for mobile services that make their lives easier, and Leo is becoming a growing choice for his convenience and personal solutions,” says Austin Abolusoro, who heads Online Banking at UBA
Leo combines the latest technology in AI; predictive analytics and natural language, to be a virtual financial assistant to customers, who can interact with it any way they choose, including texting or tapping options on their screen. Leo has proven to be an important financial assistant, helping users to search for transactions, view account history and balance, pay bills, as well as track spending trends. Leo is also developing interest in other aspects of users’ lives and currently helps them to check football scores and weather information. Leo will continue to learn and become more involved in the lives of users to better meet their needs and address their queries.
“As we continue to advance our work on AI-driven developments, it is important that we listen to our users today and further enhance Leo to align to client feedback in order to better meet and anticipate needs and even give them increased value as Leo clocks one,” Abolusoro adds
This milestone reflects the bank’s continued focus on providing industry-leading digital capabilities as part of its high-tech, high-touch client experience.
Everything learnt over the last one year of Leo’s work will help UBA improve on its digital offerings, says Abolusoro, Head of online banking, who assured customers of “nothing short of the very best innovation in the coming months”.
Leo is set to become a financial control centre for its wide range of users, offering them accessible and intelligent ways to manage their money. It will also be recommending ways to save money and automatically switch to the best value products available to the user.
Leo who speaks multiple languages and is extremely user friendly, has become the preferred Banking Chatbot in Nigeria and the only available AI banking chatbot in 15 other countries across Africa, including Cameroon, Zambia, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal, Congo DRC, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and UBA’s latest subsidiary, Mali.
In 12 short months since he was launched, Leo has won several awards, including the Euromoney Award which aptly validates his dominance in the digital banking space. Euromoney is a globally renowned organisation which appraises more than 20 global product categories, best-in-class awards and the best Banks in over 100 countries around the world, recognising institutions that have demonstrated leadership, innovation, and momentum in the markets in which they operate.
 has continued to drive digital transformation and innovation with UBA’s chatbot LEO which now boasts of over 1 million users){kind=link}