R E G I O N A L R E V I E W
R E G I O N A L R E V I E W
Customers can access Mukuru services primarily through their mobile devices , using WhatsApp , USSD , the Mukuru App or mobile responsive websites . Customers receive service support through the contact centre .
Mukuru has an extensive agent , branch and booth network to meet customers where they are within their communities . These staff members have access to Apps on their smartphones to facilitate customer transactions .
Product development and innovation
Mukuru ’ s strategic intent to be a financial services platform for Africa ’ s emerging consumer , drives the technical product roadmap . This is aligned to the primary needs of those African consumer to send money , have a digital store of value and spend effectively in their ecosystem through relevant payment use cases
Mukuru moved to a fully cloud hosted architecture in 2015 which has allowed the company to leverage platform development for product launches across 13 African countries . It continues to invest in DevOps cloud infrastructure which supports the multi-service architecture which is being created to support business product expansion .
Long-term business transformation projects at Mukuru include :
• Building and launching wallet products across the business ’ s footprint
• Creating payment options for customers which include airtime , electricity , satellite TV services , and more
• Launching funeral insurance across the business ’ s footprint
• Adding multiple customer service use cases to our WhatsApp self-service chatbot platform
• Continuous improvement on our customer App
• Continuous partner integrations , which allow customers better access to a remittance network across Africa and Asia
IT expectations from business users , customers
Staff members need reliable technology that helps them serve customers efficiently and correctly in every interaction , across a broad range of use cases , some of which are unique to a particular country . Business users expect a software engineering department to develop scalable , secure products as quickly as possible .
A key business stakeholder pain point is the speed of software development . The speed with which a business can respond to changing market needs is often a differentiator in the FinTech space . Software engineers need to develop a minimum viable product that can be tested in the market with robust architecture that can scale .
Customers are at the heart of everything Mukuru does . Financial services customers expect secure , responsive access to Mukuru channels 24x7 . Customers expect ongoing product and channel improvements . They demand ease of use and greater access to digitisation .
A key customer pain point is lack of options . Customers need technical solutions that are appropriate for their needs . This is especially true in Africa where customers need options ranging from USSD through to smart Apps because the needs vary notably across diverse markets . The cost of data is also a major challenge for the emerging consumer .
Navigating technical solutions for Africa ’ s emerging consumers across 13 jurisdictions is challenging . Regulators change their requirements frequently , while Africa has a level of both political and market volatility .
Mukuru manages six customer engagement platforms to meet consumer needs , and all of these moving parts need to be catered for in a single cloud-hosted technology platform which Mukuru can leverage for scale and security needs as it grows .
Usage of AI
Software developers are generally at the forefront of the AI adoption curve , and have been following AI trends in development tooling for quite some time . They have been using these as they become available in the market . Mukuru sees value in efficiency gains where good AI development tools can automate typical things such as code exceptions , service setup , and more . Mukuru has an active strategy to roll out standardised AI development tools to all engineers .
The biggest AI use case at Mukuru is in the customer service space . The company is investigating using AI to support customer queries across its social media and WhatsApp platforms , to improve both customer support response times and to standardise service query resolution .
Solving Mukuru ’ s challenges is the most satisfying part of Sandy ’ s role . She also enjoys building and supporting her exceptional team , as well as working alongside her executive colleagues , to drive the strategic execution of such a dynamic , purpose-driven company . �
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