Family bank rides on SimbaPay for Chinese Yuan - ITREALMS

ITREALMS:

Acclaimed leading bank in Kenya, Family Bank Limited is riding on partnership with London-based financial technology firm SimbaPay to launch an instant money transfer service from Kenya to China through WeChat – a service that will help boost Kenya-China trade, reports ITREALMS.

Over seven million customers and businesses in Kenya will now access SimbaPay’s international money transfer service to send money to China’s WeChat Pay from Family Bank’s PesaPap mobile banking application and USSD service. Non-customers too will enjoy the service via a dedicated PayBill number 261059 on MPESA.

With over 1 billion subscribers, WeChat is the largest payment and social media app in China. This initiative therefore connects Africa’s largest mobile money ecosystem to China’s largest payment service in real-time.

“This is a huge milestone for us and our customers. We are glad to extend, more so to our SME customers, a solution that offers an instant, reliable, traceable and affordable channel to send money to their suppliers and business partners in China,” said Family Bank Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Godfrey Kamau.

China is Kenya’s biggest trading partner. In 2017 alone, businesses in Kenya imported well over USD 4 billion worth of goods from China. The current existing solutions for sending money to China take multiple days to reach the recipient’s bank account, with some requiring the supplier to physically visit an agent to collect their money. This new service easily overcomes these barriers.

With the increased efficiency provided by this new service, traders in Kenya will replenish stock faster, thus bolstering trade between the two nations. Additionally, financial inclusion will be positively impacted as more small scale traders will be able to directly source goods from China instead of depending on middlemen to make payments on their behalf.

Chuks Egbune/ED, Ops

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SimbaPay chatbot debuts for Africa, Europe

ITREALMS:

London based digital money transfer provider, SimbaPay has launch an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered chatbot service which now makes International Money Transfer (remittance) possible with only an SMS, reports ITRealms.

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.

Chuks Egbune/GEE

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Christmas gift @SimbaPay to Ghanaians, Ugandans

ITRealms:

As part of its Christmas gift to Ghanaians and Ugandans, a London-based digital money transfer provider, SimbaPay has extended its services to Ghana and Uganda respectively, reports ITRealms.

The chief executive officer for SimbaPay, Nyasinga Onyancha, disclosed this to ITRealms in a press statement endorsed by the operational officer, Alex Maganga, quoting Onyancha as noting that using the SimbaPay app or website, Ghanaians and Ugandans living in Europe could now send money to mobile phones in Ghana or Uganda instantly.

“This is the perfect Christmas gift to Ghanaians and Ugandans living in Europe who have been asking when SimbaPay will expand coverage to their home countries” the CEO said, stressing that by delivering money via existing mobile money wallet services, many recipients who previously could not access formal financial services can now do so.

Ghanaians and Ugandans living in Europe (UK & European Union countries) with a bank account, debit card or credit card will be able to use the SimbaPay app from any mobile phone, tablet or computer. Transfers made using SimbaPay are credited within seconds to recipients’ mobile money wallets such as MTN Mobile Money. This eliminates the inconvenience of queues and old school paperwork.

SimbaPay, ITRealms notes, also delivers money transfers via mobile money and bank account to other African countries such as Nigeria and Kenya with more destinations and partners being sought for addition in 2017.

Nonye Dom/GEE

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SimbaPay, Choice Microfinance Bank app for Kenyans

ITRealms

SimbaPay, a leading digital money transfer provider is partnering with Choice Microfinance Bank to bring financial services to Kenyans living in United Kingdom and other European Union countries, ITRealms reports. 

Kenyans living in the UK with a bank account, debit card or credit card are now able to use the SimbaPay app to make money transfers from any mobile phone, tablet or computer. The service will be rolled out to Kenyans living in other EU countries in the near future.

In the press release made available to ITRealms, the Head, Operations, SimbaPay, Victor Karanja, “Our customers who already bank with Choice Microfinance Bank or have friends and family using the bank will be glad to see their transfers being credited instantly”. 

The Deputy CEO, Choice Microfinance Bank, Stanley Kasyoka, added that “We are very excited about this new partnership with SimbaPay which is heavily engaged with the economic force that is Kenyans living abroad. Kenyans abroad are the country’s largest earner of foreign exchange today”.

SimbaPay and Choice Microfinance Bank, ITRealms gathered, announced the partnership on August 29, 2015 in London at the annual “Kenya in the Park” event where they also exhibited the service. The two companies jointly sponsored the event  with other businesses targeting Kenyans abroad. The event is an annual celebration of Kenya’s rich vibrant culture.

For ease of use, Choice Bank has been pre-loaded on to the SimbaPay platform which eliminates the need for customers having to remember the Choice Bank pay bill details. At the time of making a money transfer using SimbaPay, customers will be required to select the bank from a database of Pay Bill businesses and then enter the destination account number and amount, ITRealms learnt.

SimbaPay also launched free, instant transfers to all Nigerian banks in May 2015.  In June it became the first platform in the world to allow Kenyans living abroad to make M-Pesa Pay Bill payments and continues to disrupt the cross-border remittance industry with its focus on speed and convenience, ITRealms informs.

Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE

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