The First National Bank Zambia’s Executive Head of Strategic Marketing and Communication Kasali Mwaba Kaingu and Proto’s Africa Director Patience Mutesi signed the agreement to deploy Proto’s multilingual AI Customer Experience (AICX) solution to assist financial consumers across the southern African country.
First National Bank Zambia (FNB) currently offers financial services to millions of customers across southern Africa, and is one of many financial institutions in Zambia that saw a significant rise in financial service users since 2014 due to the country’s national financial inclusion strategy. As a result of this increase, especially amongst rural and historically-underserved communities, financial institutions require a solution that can serve this scaling customer volume across multiple languages, while remaining cost-effective.
FNB’s deployment of Proto’s AI-enabled customer experience chatbot offers this solution – a banking chatbot for local languages, such as Bemba and Nyanja, across highly-accessible channels such as WhatsApp, Twitter, and SMS.
Initially, the chatbot will process queries in English, with a steady rollout of the additional local languages. Within Proto’s AICX platform, the Tickets product will automatically categorise and refer complex queries, such as account setup troubleshooting, to live agents. FNB will also use Proto’s Customers product to collect customer preferences and demographics for more personalised service, marketing campaigns, and lead generation.
Proto’s CEO Curtis Matlock said: “This chatbot deployment at the First National Bank Zambia comes in the footsteps of the Zambian central bank’s deployment of Proto for local language service for underserved communities. We see this as a strong indication of inclusive chat-banking taking hold in southern Africa.”
First National Bank Zambia’s Executive Head of Strategic Marketing and Communications, Kasali Mwaba Kaingu said: “In the spirit of helpfulness, we are excited that we can serve our customers more efficiently in this way through our digital platforms. We are constantly challenging ourselves to re-imagine help by being more responsive to our customer’s needs and making our interactions helpful, easy and safe.”
Contact info:
Proto
Website: https://www.proto.cx/
Contact: Patience Mutesi, Director of Africa
E-mail: patience@proto.cx
First National Bank Zambia
Website: www.fnbzambia.co.zm
Contact: Karen Adams, Brand & Comms Manager
E-mail: karen.adams@fnbzambia.co.zm
About First National Bank of Zambia
First National Bank Zambia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of First Rand Group South Africa and started operating in Zambia on 1st April 2009. The FirstRand Group has a presence in nine African countries outside South Africa, offering full banking services through FNB and Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). FNB Zambia Limited is authorised and regulated by the Bank of Zambia and is an active member of the Bankers Association of Zambia. The team services retail customers, small to medium enterprises, and local and multinational corporate clients and offers a comprehensive suite of Corporate and Investment Banking products and services. The Bank has a network of 23 branches, approximately 160 ATMs, more than 3,800 Point of Sale devices, and over 1,800 CashPlus agencies.
About Proto
Proto is the leader for multilingual contact centre automation in emerging markets. Proto’s AI Customer Experience (AICX) platform is powered by proprietary natural language processing (NLP) for under-resourced and rare languages. Proto's novel deep-learning techniques and regulatory partnerships maximise customer experience, protection, and lifetime value.
