Ecobank last week announced 11 finalists for its second annual Ecobank Fintech Challenge – a challenge that gives African Fintech startups a chance to promote their Fintech solutions, and potentially to partner with Ecobank in rolling-out their solutions across Ecobank’s 33 markets.
The challenge is designed in partnership with the advisory firm Konfidants and is supported by several partners across Africa and globally.
After the call in for application, 11 finalists were selected who will participate in an Awards and Innovation Fair at the Ecobank HQ in Togo on August 30th, 2018 exhibiting and pitching their products to a panel of selected jury – where only three winners, will emerge winners and will receive a cash prize of USD$10,000, USD$7,000, and USD$5,000 respectively.
The finalists include; Lypa (Kenya), Wallet.ng (Nigeria), Nala (Tanzania), Litee (Benin), SESO Global (South Africa), InvestED (Sierra Leone), Eversend (France), Secapay (Nigeria), Virtual Identity (South Africa), MojiPay (Togo), and Awamo (Germany)
After the Awards ceremony, Ecobank will enroll the finalists into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship that will run for a period of six months. Finalists will benefit from an opportunity to further explore partnerships with the Ecobank Group including; Multinational product roll-out support, Service provider & ecosystem partner deals, and Technical & mentoring support from Ecobank’s global network of technology leaders, Fintech experts, investors and management coaches.
Eddy Ogbogu, Ecobank Group Executive for Operations and Technology in a statement said, Africa has a proud history of innovation, and today’s Fintech startups are the potential giants of tomorrow.
“We’re delighted by the quality of our Fintech Challenge finalists and have high hopes that they will capitalize on the mentoring and support opportunities of the Ecobank competition on their journeys to future success,” says Eddy.
The bank’s Group CEO, Ade Ayeyemi, said the bank’s digital strategy is spectacularly successful and has changed the landscape of African banking, and would go without saying that they see Fintech as a vital component for the economic transformation of the continent and the prosperity of its citizens.
“We want to do all we can to encourage the next generations of Fintech entrepreneurs as they will be a driving force in propelling Africa into a globally competitive power in commercial services, enjoying significantly increased market share,” says Ade.
