Summary
· NSSF introduces powerful self-service capabilities with AI-powered digital customer assistant named ‘Sanyu’, based on Avaya
technology.
· Sanyu reduces contact waiting times by providing easy self-service for routine transactions – while freeing up human agents
so that they can address more complex requests.
Kampala, Uganda – January 27, 2022 – The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) of Uganda has transformed its customer experience with powerful self-service capabilities by introducing an AI-powered digital customer assistant named ‘Sanyu’ based on Avaya (NYSE: AVYA) technology.
Sanyu, an advanced chatbot that now serves as the NSSF’s front line of customer service, is integrated into the organisation’s Avaya OneCloudTM CCaaS contact centre solution and a range of digital touchpoints. It reduces waiting times for customers who contact the NSSF by providing easy self-service for routine transactions – in the process freeing up human agents so that they can address more complex requests.
NSSF is the national savings scheme mandated by the government of Uganda to provide social security services to all private-sector employees in the country. The organisation sees a very high volume of interactions and transactions and serves customers through multiple channels such as a web portal, app, messaging platforms, call centres, and a physical branch network.
“We estimated that our customer service personnel were spending around three-quarters of their day on easily-answered queries, such as statement requests, registration, and FAQs,” said Richard Byarugaba, Managing Director, NSSF. “By automating most of these interactions, our agents now focus on transactions that require human intervention, typically at the higher-end of the value chain. This transformation paid off during the pandemic, as lockdowns and distancing reduced our customers’ visits to physical branches and increased the demand on our call centres and online platforms.”
The deployment comes as the NSSF’s latest effort to digitise the customer experience. Over the last two years the organisation has moved over 94% of its member transactions and interactions over to digital channels, with only the remaining 6% of customers using walk-in service centres. That digital shift, however, necessitated a transformation in how inbound requests are handled.
“We had been struggling to keep up with the high volume of frequent queries coming in, and we did not have a solution that offered customers the same experience and convenience on our various different digital platforms. We wanted to have unlimited capacity to respond instantly, any time, to customer queries. There was also a need to free up our front-end employees from routine support requests and enable them to focus on more complex tasks,” said Byarugaba.
Sanyu emerged as the solution, integrating into NSSF’s customer-facing interfaces such as a web portal, mobile app, mobile browser, and social messaging clients. The bot interacts with customers through text-based chat and delivers powerful self-service, automating workflows such as Employer Registration, Member Registration, Member Benefit Tracking, Member Provisional Balance, Member Statement and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). And if it cannot serve the customer’s request, Sanyu seamlessly routes the query to the best available agent.
Since October 2020, nearly 164,000 customer transactions and interactions have been registered through Sanyu, and the NSSF is confident the solution will contribute to an improvement in its Net Promoter Score and first contact resolution rates.
Vinod Kumar Puthanpura, Territory Account Manager – West, East & Central Africa, Avaya, said, “With its deployment of Sanyu, NSSF is at the leading edge of infusing AI into the customer experience. With the powerful AI tools available to it through the Avaya OneCloud ecosystem, NSSF has introduced tremendous self-service capabilities that enhance both customer and employee experiences. and set the organisation well on its way to becoming a digital business. We look forward to further supporting the NSSF as it continues this journey.”
About NSSF Uganda
The National Social Security Fund Uganda is a multi-Trillion Fund mandated by Government through the NSSF Act, Cap 222 (Laws of Uganda) to provide social security services to employees in the private sector.
The Fund is a secure, innovative, and dynamic social security provider that guarantees safety, security, and a competitive return on members’ savings of over 2% above the 10-year inflation average.
The Fund manages assets worth over UGX 15.5 trillion at June 30, 2021, invested in Fixed Income, Equities and Real Estate assets within the East Africa region. As the largest Fund in East Africa by value, we have the ambitious goal of growing our Assets Under Management to 20 Trillion by 2025.
Since 2012, the Fund is regulated by the Uganda Retirement Benefits Regulatory Authority while Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development is responsible for policy oversight.
Kenya and the United Kingdom (UK) have partnered in the war against cyber-crimes to weed out security threats posed since the inception of digital technology.
State Department for Broadcasting and Telecommunications Principal Secretary (PS) Esther Koimett said that as the country moves to fully embrace the provision of services through a digital platform in all sectors of the economy, there was need to shield the online systems from threats.
She told a workshop for government communicators on cyber security crisis communication held on Tuesday at a Nairobi hotel said that there has been a steady rise in cyber threats across the world and Kenya has been no exception, with websites of various ministries being constantly under cyber-attack.
“This training is therefore important as it will enhance our capacity as government communicators to effectively play our role in informing citizens about how to protect themselves from cyber threats like the ever-emerging scams and fraudulent schemes,” said the PS.
Koimett said that the objective of the training is to strengthen the strategic communications capability of the UK government, its allies and partners to jointly understand and counter cyber threats from hostile state actors given the increasing importance of technology and digitization in the delivery of services in every aspect of human interaction.
“The training project consists of communications planning, delivery and training to support crisis communications and campaigns capability development for partner countries. It also touches on research and insights on critical audience vulnerabilities to underpin joint strategies and campaign development,” she said.
Koimett highlighted that the government of Kenya is cognizant of the importance of Public Communications and they strategically utilise Public Communications to promote government policies, programmes and strategies to cultivate a positive image and build confidence in government.
“I wish to acknowledge the cordial and close working relations between the governments of Kenya and the UK and to thank the UK government for facilitating this training programme that has allowed knowledge-sharing in communications experience and skills,” said Koimett.
British Deputy High Commissioner, Josephine Gauld stated that technology has made lives easier and the UK Government provides most of their services online adding that cyber security threats might lead to a national security crisis if not well handled. By Joseph Ng’ang’a, KNA
• Ruto senators were overshadowed by President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga's allies since they managed to raise less than 10 members in voting against the Bill.
• In a vote cast, the ayes team which is allied to the Handshake garnered 28 votes against nays' 3 votes.
Issac Juma Onyango's passion for football was 'unmatched', Kenya's national team the Harambee Stars said
Kenyans were mourning Thursday the country's best known football fan, a colourful former newspaper vendor who was found hacked to death at his home.
Issac Juma Onyango was a familiar feature when the national team Harambee Stars were playing -- painting his body from head to toe in Kenya's colours of black, red and green, and staging animated dances in the stadium.
"His passion for the game was unmatched," the Harambee Stars said in a tribute on Twitter.
For more than two decades, Onyango was a walking advertisement for the Harambee Stars and other top club teams, including his favourite AFC Leopards, and his appearance in the stadium was believed to be a good luck charm.
"I do it because I love football so much, I can hardly miss an international match anywhere in the country," he said in a 2007 interview with a Kenyan newspaper.
"After being painted I stop talking to anybody, abstain from sex and do nothing to compromise my concentration until after the match."
He said his love for the beautiful game began when he was a youngster and he used to sneak out of school to watch football matches.
Onyango was awarded a Kenyan lifetime achievement award for his contribution to football in 2011.
The 56-year-old was hacked to death by armed men at his village home in western Kenya on Wednesday in what was believed to be a dispute over ancestral land, media reports said. He is survived by two wives. Reports said he had 10 or 11 children. AFP
Ugandan Commander of Land Forces, Lt-Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
By day, Uganda’s Lt-Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba is commander of land forces and senior adviser on special operations to President Yoweri Museveni. By night, he is supposed to be the President’s son who sometimes gets in high spirits about life.
These days, he has taken on the role of special envoy too, flying to Kenya for a chat with President Uhuru Kenyatta and then hopping on a plane to Kigali for talks with President Paul Kagame.
On Saturday, he visited Kigali, where he had a chat with President Kagame and lunch. The mood may have been made light, but the background is that the two countries haven’t opened their land border for nearly two years, accusing one another of roiling each side’s national security.
The presidency in Kigali described the meeting as “cordial, productive and forward looking discussions about Rwanda’s concerns and practical steps needed to restore the relationship between Rwanda and Uganda”.
Both countries are led by army veterans: one who stopped a deadly ethnic cleansing formally known as the Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994, and another who stormed to power after defeating Milton Obote and his Uganda National Liberation Army in 1986.
But while they have a connection from those war years, their relations have been lukewarm, affecting road transport and trade between them. Though their capitals are just 500km apart, people travelling between the two sides now have to fly as the border crossings are closed.
Yet Muhoozi’s travel to Kigali was partly because he could use the old connections to incite friendly feelings.
“I have been alive long enough to know that Uganda and Rwanda are one country,” he said, referring to the fact that the countries have close cultural ties too and that the wars brought them closer.
“In exile in the 1980s me and my family (sic) were also called 'Rwandans'. Only enemies would fight our unity. Let us resolve these small problems quickly and move forward together as always!”
Those small problems, though, have touched one leader’s ego. A number of Rwandans are in detention in Uganda for alleged involvement in spying. Some Ugandans who ‘strayed’ into Rwanda have ended up detained.
On his return home, Muhoozi came with Special Forces Command Private Ronald Arinda, who had been detained in Rwanda for entering “without permission”.
Back in Kampala, President Museveni made changes to his military intelligence, replacing Maj-Gen Abel Kandiho as the head of military intelligence. Maj-Gen Kandiho, who will now head to a lowly military attaché post in South Sudan, had been the face of torture in the eyes of Rwandans.
Accused of kidnapping and torturing suspects, some of whom were Rwandans, the US last year imposed sanctions on him and his immediate family, barring him from setting foot in the US.
The incidents have not been linked yet, at least officially. But that Muhoozi travelled when Uganda had just sent in a new high commissioner to Kigali has got some commentators debating whether this was parallel diplomacy. Some say he was suitable because he had no fear of losing the job yet.
“I know of no one in Uganda who could be the best envoy to President Paul Kagame and meaningfully discuss the issues between Kigali and Kampala other than my brother (Muhoozi.”),” argued Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan commentator and publisher.
“First, he believes this relationship is of great strategic value for both countries and for Africa.”
“Muhoozi is the best suited envoy to Kigali (because) he also believes President Kagame does not necessarily have malign intentions against Uganda. So he knows he can talk to him and find a solution to the tensions that have been tearing our countries apart.”
By looking up to Kagame as a mentor and hero, it could build optimism that may end the tension, Mwenda said on his Twitter page.
Muhoozi’s assignments have gone beyond Rwanda. He has visited Kenya, twice, and Somalia, where he spoke with Ugandan troops under the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).
Seen as an heir apparent to President Museveni’s political estate in Uganda, some of the trips could benefit him.
Earlier this month, President Kenyatta and Lt-Gen Kainerugaba visited the Naivasha Inland Container Depot, the Kisumu shipyard and the new Mbita bridge, projects that could in future affect relations between the two sides.
President Kenyatta wants to see a link between the Standard Gauge Railway and the Metre Gauge Railway to help transport cargo to the Malaba border crossing. If this works, it could ease the flow of goods between the two countries.
For Muhoozi, perhaps it is learning from those ahead of him even when he speaks in terms of bilateral relations.
“I thank my great big brother, President Uhuru Kenyatta, for inviting me to my second home Kenya, to join him in the inauguration of the Inland Container Depot in Naivasha,” Lt-Gen Kainerugaba commented on his Twitter page, his latest favourite channel of communication.
“A strong East Africa is the only way to go.”
He was rarely outspoken, but has recently been vocal about regional politics in what could be seen as trying to pull out of his father’s shadow. In October, he reflected on his “hero”, President Kenyatta.
“I was honoured to visit my elder, my big brother and my hero recently in Nairobi,” he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, in the caption of a photo of him with the Kenyan President. Both wore camping shoes, jeans and checked shirts and relaxed by a coffee table with water.
“President Uhuru is an inspiration to many of us across East Africa and Africa,” Muhoozi added in the tweet.
Lt-Gen Kainerugaba has not yet announced his political ambitions, and his father has not indicated he will retire yet. By Aggrey Mutambo, Nation
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