NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

In the Western world, everyone is talking about messaging apps and chatbots. Now, users in Africa and other low-income countries can use chatbots instead of text messages to ask questions. Currently, most people in Africa use text messages to send money with a service called M-Pesa from the largest tech start-up in Kenya.

Now, chatbots could potentially replace text-based transactions altogether. Budapest-based Hungarian start-up UXstudio has created a chatbot called Nuru. The app can help smartphone users in Kenya and Ghana in four different ways: Agriculture, classified ads, finances, and healthcare.

It wants users to interact with a chatbot and see a familiar conversational interface. Africa has 5.3 million Facebook users, and 78 percent of smartphone owners use their device for social networking and chatting. However, currently, text-based interactions still dominate mobile user transactions in Kenya and Ghana.

Ghanan start-up Esoko offers text-based market price information for farmers, so they can sell their crops at a fair price. Users send a code by text and get back the information they require.

If a farmer uses the Nuru chatbot to help sell their product, they do not need to set a price. It can calculate the price based on the type of produce and the quantity they have to sell. The farmer can change the price if required or get a fair price suggestion via the app.