Moniepoint Launches AI Chatbot ‘M’ for Nigeria Informal Market
Payment platform Moniepoint has launched ‘M,’ an AI chatbot that it says is designed to support informal businesses in Nigeria, where commerce overwhelmingly takes place between traders and small-time entrepreneurs.
The bot, which uses large language models, addresses common questions about business operations, payments and basic finance in natural language.
Moniepoint, which processes more than a billion transactions per month and serves more than 10 million businesses and individuals, believes that its informal marketplaces are complex enough without requiring users to navigate dense financial jargon.
“M,” whose name stands for Machine Intelligence, was launched by co-founders Tosin Eniolorunda and Felix Ike to mark the company’s 10th anniversary. It has enabled the payment platform to process payments worth more than $22 billion.
The chatbot works within the same environment that provides products ranging from banking to credit and business management solutions. Early adopters can ask simple questions and get nuanced answers in natural language, without requiring any particular expertise.
Moniepoint’s approach reflects the way Nigerian fintechs are looking to embed increasingly sophisticated AI into everyday services used by millions of people, as opposed to standalone products or solutions.
