Emma Okonji
In an effort to drive more meaningful voter engagement in Nigeria’s 2023 general election, Yiaga Africa, a leading non-partisan and non-profit organization, has partnered with Infobip, a global cloud communications company to implement an innovative WhatsApp conversational chatbot solution to improve voters’ education across the country.
A one-of-a-kind project for Infobip in Africa, the voter education chatbot named #MyElectionBuddy, has been developed to provide critical election information to Nigerian citizens, in line with Yiaga Africa’s drive to increase education voters and citizenship. commitments.
Isaac Akanni, Director of Customer Growth for Africa at Infobip Nigeria, who led the implementation of the project, noted that the 2023 election remains crucial for the country and relevant organizations like Yiaga Africa have been working hard to make sure eligible voters have all the right information they need. to vote at the polls.
“Even though a large number of people usually register to vote, a relatively small number of people show up at the polls. Indeed, people often struggle to get information on how to vote, where to vote, how to get or renew a voter card, or what voting unit they belong to,” Akanni said.
According to him, “voter education is therefore the biggest challenge that Yiaga Africa was looking to solve, and they wanted to solve it through a comprehensive WhatsApp-based chatbot that would reach many people.”
The developed chatbot can answer a range of user questions and links to official election websites where voters can find external information, such as election results.
Akanni explains that after being appointed to the project, Infobip completed the implementation by February 1, 2023, under very tight deadlines.
“Over time, we will continue to improve the chatbot and its features. However, user feedback has been positive since launch, registering thousands of active users,” Akanni said.
He also said Yiaga named Infobip because of the strength of its solutions and local presence. Infobip gave them a good understanding of the technical requirements to roll out a project of this scale and local insights into what kind of user experience and content would resonate with Nigerians. One initiative that resonates with the public is the inclusion of a peace pledge. This feature allows users to earn a peace badge for committing to maintaining peace and non-violence during the election process.
“We are very honored to be associated with a prestigious organization like Yiaga Africa, which has promoted participatory democracy, human rights and civic participation in Nigeria through its many initiatives. Thanks to the fantastic relationship we have established with this project, we are confident that we will continue to work together to explore other use cases to help them achieve all of their goals in Africa,” added Akanni.
Mark Amaza, senior communications manager at Yiaga Africa, said the chatbot would increase voter confidence in their participation in elections.
“The WhatsApp chatbot enabled us to reach thousands of voters with accurate and timely information on the 2023 Nigerian Elections. This information ranged from understanding the electoral process to locating their polling stations and knowing the tracking election results,” Amaza said.
According to Amaza, they particularly appreciate the way the Infobip team supported them in the development and launch of the project.
“Infobip made sure we understood how the chatbot would work and built our ability to maintain it as an important communication channel for our organization. Above all, they were always quick to respond to inquiries and resolve issues. , providing us with 24/7 support,” Amaza added.
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