Ecobank group has formally announced its 4th edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge.
The Fintech Challenge is in line with the Bank’s commitment to championing digitization by giving innovative African start-ups the opportunity to promote their fintech solutions.
Start-ups can potentially partner with Ecobank to scale their solutions across Ecobank’s 33 African markets as well as its international operations in France.
Applications have opened for entries from all start-ups and developers in any of Africa’s 54 countries and global Africa-centered Fintechs.
All selected Finalists will be inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship following the Finals and Awards ceremony slated for November 2021. The selected top three winners will receive cash prizes worth $15,000, $12,000, and $10,000 respectively.
All Fellows will however qualify to explore the following opportunities with the bank:
- Multinational product roll out: an opportunity to pursue integration with Ecobank and potentially launch products in parts of Ecobank’s Pan African 33-country ecosystem.
- Service provider partnerships: Ecobank may select start-ups as pan-African service partner within the bank’s ecosystem.
- Access to Ecobank’s Pan-African Banking Sandbox: Fellows will be given access to Ecobank’s APIs to test and improve their products for the pan-African market.
- Mentoring and networking support in the network of global and African partners of the Group.
- Priority Access to Ecobank’s VC partners for funding exploration.
Ade Ayeyemi, CEO of Ecobank Group, reiterated Ecobank’s dedication to supporting innovation across the continent, stating “The global impact of Covid-19 has accelerated the dire necessity to digitize and transform banking operations.
“As a banking group, we are convinced now more than ever that innovation and technology are the future of banking and, therefore, reaffirm our continuous commitment to identify and support Africa’s brightest developers to promote their solutions and help improve our services through the Ecobank Fintech Challenge”.
The Challenge resulted in Ecobank successfully launching the Ecobank Investor App, originally developed by Finance Mobile, a start-up from the 2017 Ecobank Fintech Fellows cohort.
