Mukuru, Africa’s largest remittance and money transfer provider, has deployed major enhancements to two of its customer self-service channels to simplify the customer user journey. In order to give Mukuru customers even more control of their financial destinies, Mukuru has upgraded their App as well as added a new self sign-up feature to its WhatsApp offering. Both channels will enable customers to sign-up and conduct important transactions from home, while also providing a central and simplified source of information to support customers along their financial journeys.

“Our customers have been asking for a Mukuru App, and we have made sure to develop and present a solution that empowers our customers to send money back home to their families in an even safer and more convenient way. Mukuru has always given its customers the ability to transact when and wherever they need to through our existing USSD and WhatsApp offerings – the Mukuru App adds a richer experience and more control for a customer to manage their profile,” says Andy Jury, CEO, Mukuru.

“Our mission is to meet customers where they are, and where they are most comfortable transacting – and our technical expertise and innovation continually reflects Mukuru’s commitment to empowering and supporting the end-user. Importantly, this is a journey and not a destination – and we continue to innovate across all of our platforms, which is highlighted by the fact that we are one of the few financial services providers in Southern Africa to give customers a choice of transacting via an app, USSD and/or WhatsApp. These new capabilities reflect our commitment to the financial freedom of our customers, and making life easier no matter what circumstances they face.” 

In addition to enabling self sign-up, the new Mukuru App (available on Android and IOS to download instantly) will empower customers to create orders and send money to 12 countries (Botswana, Bangladesh, DR Congo, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Pakistan, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia). Notably, By creating their own user profile and personalising key features, the App will create new efficiencies for users such as enabling quick and easy repeat sends; access to a price and rate checker. The App will also allow users to find pay in points for settling orders and/or advise their beneficiaries of collection points in their receiving countries. Importantly, existing customers can quickly and easily link their user profiles to the App and safely store and edit personal details and information. Although the App is still in a beta phase, it has been launched early to get live customer feedback from early adopters, and thus ensure that all the features required to meet customer’s needs are built.

Removing administrative barriers for customers

Along with the upgraded Mukuru App, the company is now giving customers the ability to sign-up for Mukuru services (and submit personal documents) via WhatsApp directly to the Mukuru verifications team. This will remove the onerous task of submitting Know-Your-Customer (KYC) documents to an agent or Mukuru branch in person – and allow customers to register and begin transacting with Mukuru far more easily. Mukuru will provide timely feedback via WhatsApp as to whether a prospective customer’s ID documents have been effectively verified or not (and if the customer needs to take further steps).

“Our customers already use WhatsApp extensively to create money transfer transactions (comprising more than 30% of our total monthly transaction volume in SA) so we are naturally extending self sign-up services on this channel,” says Jury. “This capability removes key barriers for our customers and increases accessibility to important financial services in South Africa and across our network. By harnessing our technology expertise and ability to innovate around customer pain points, we are boosting financial inclusion by allowing customers to submit their own KYC documents and gain access to higher limits.”

To drive convenience along with financial safety, Mukuru offers three different solutions: Lite, Core and Max – which have monthly transaction limits that are determined by the customer’s sending needs. All of these offerings are woven into the sign-up and order flows on both the App and WhatsApp platforms. Each offering has varying requirements in terms of proof of identity and verification, but all are designed to get customers transacting as quickly and as easily as possible – while supporting social distancing as lockdowns continue. On a day to day level, these offerings empower customers to gain long term financial freedom and transact without any red tape.

Notably, Mukuru has been working on a new API design to enable the back-end services and architectural stack that powers these new self-service features and enables multiple customer channels or touchpoints.

“We are delighted to be continually introducing new ways of interacting with the Mukuru offering and simplifying daily transactions for our customers,” adds Jury.

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