Nigeria-based Zenith Bank has introduced its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot on WhatsApp, dubbed ZIVA (Zenith Intelligent Virtual Assistant), to offer real-time customer services.
Customers can avail the service by saving the bank’s dedicated WhatsApp number 7040004422 on their mobile device, agree to the legal terms of use, and start the conversation.
ZIVA responds to the chats or queries and helps customers to conveniently interact and make transactions on the encrypted WhatsApp platform.
The product is said to enable customers to open new accounts, receive instant transaction notifications, check their balances on the go, transfer funds and top up airtime.
Also, it helps them to confirm cheques, pay bills, apply for loans, block their accounts, and request mini statements, amongst other banking services.
Zenith Bank Group managing director and CEO Ebenezer Onyeagwu said: “The launch of ZIVA is driven by the need for additional secured channels of communication with our customers as we deepen our retail penetration.
“It was really important for us as a leading financial services institution and a pioneer of several technological innovations in the financial services industry to implement this solution in order to continue to create value for our teeming customers who incidentally were already using WhatsApp as a primary channel of communication.”
In April last year, the bank has rolled out an automated voice banking service, an interactive voice response (IVR) solution for its customers.
Customers can use the service to perform basic banking transactions using a dedicated phone line through their registered phone numbers and following the prompts.
The IVR solution enables them to pay DSTV/GOTV bills, restrict their accounts, block their cards, request an account statement via email, view the last five transactions, transfer funds, buy airtime, among others.
Zenith Bank is a financial service provider in Nigeria and Anglophone West Africa, with a commercial bank license granted by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
