WhatsApp is a very popular platform with over 1.5 billion active global users all waiting to be monetised. In recent times there has been a push by various startups to turn it into more than a chatting platform. In India the Facebook owned app can now make payments. Mukuru has joined this bandwagon in a way it seems. Customers can now send money from WhatsApp.
How it works
According to Mukuru they are utilising the Business WhatsApp API to initiate the send money transaction. Mukuru also says the service can be used by customers to manage aspects of their accounts from within the chatting app. To begin using the service existing Mukuru customers can follow these steps:
- Save the number +27 860 018 555 in your contacts. Do not forget the country code
- Send a new WhatsApp message with the key words ‘Moo’ to this number
- You will be led through a process to create a money transfer order. Once the order is created you can pay in the money at one of Mukuru’s pay in partners. A complete list of these can be found here https://www.mukuru.com/whatsapp/
Mukuru’s Press Release
January 2019: Mukuru announced today that they are one of the first money transfer companies in South Africa to allow customers to use WhatsApp to initiate transactions. As a leading money transfer service in Southern Africa, Mukuru strives to be the most convenient, safe and reliable option for financially underserved customers living away from home to help them support their families and realise their dreams. The WhatsApp Business API integration adds immensely to the world class service Mukuru provides to customers.
“We have integrated with the WhatsApp Business API to allow our customers to both create money transfer orders as well as managing their account details” says Oliver O’Brien, Head of Strategy and Business Development at Mukuru. He added, “It has taken a few months, and being one of the first to market, the overall process of integration has been relatively smooth sailing.”
One of the many benefits is that the technology can work anywhere. Mukuru customers can be in any country in which the company operates and still interact with Mukuru via WhatsApp. The service is multilingual and has been translated into French, Shona, Ndebele, Chewa, Sesotho, and Portuguese. Customers can easily request to chat with an agent in their home language.
Mukuru prides itself in ensuring the safety of their customer transactions. WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption applies to all interactions, which means that even WhatsApp cannot see the contents of a user’s messages to Mukuru.
“The introduction of WhatsApp will not replace our existing methods of sending money, rather this is a new and innovative use of existing technology that helps to replace inefficiencies of the old (SMS/USSD).”said O’Brien.
Adding to Mukuru’s long list of industry firsts, the addition of the WhatsApp Business Solution simply allows the company to provide an even more convenient, safe and reliable service to their customers.
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9 comments
You missed the last digit on the number, the number should read +27 860 018 555
Thanks let me correct that
You said existing customers are able to use the whatsapp platform?
Existing Mukuru customers, according to Mukuru,can now use WhatsApp to send money
…or those who are already registered with Mukuru can now use the Whatsapp platform in addition to the USSD, Mukuru mobile app and Mukuru website channels.
I’m waiting for the day when whatsapp will introduce a global wallet service where customers don’t need to cash out their money, i.e. whatsapp/facebook becomes your bank and your whatsapp number becomes synonymous with your bank account number. Local and international person to person transactions will become as simple as existing person to person chat messages. At that point we can all say bye-bye to the thieving local banks and especially all central banks that don’t know what money is or how it works.
in that case platforms like ecocash will get some serious competition. i wonder why they haven”t done it though mmmh?
I may have missed the advantages since I merely skimmed through the article and feel too lazy to go through it again – but – if I still have to visit a Mukuru agent to “cash in”, why do I need the WhatsApp integration again?
Easier way to create an order than ussd? I prefer whatsapp to ussd. They’ll probably let you pay with a card later…actually I think if you have a mukuru card you can already pay using that on ussd. No need to cash in. Sounds cool