Pan-African banking group Ecobank has opened applications for the third edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge, which gives startups the opportunity to promote their fintech solutions and potentially roll out across the bank’s 33 markets.
The Ecobank Fintech Challenge, previous editions of which were won by Tanzania’s Nala and Nigeria’s IroFit, welcomes submissions from all startups and developers in any of Africa’s 54 countries.
Selected finalists will be inducted as Ecobank Fintech Fellows, and participate in a business bootcamp followed by an Awards and Innovation Fair at the headquarters of the Ecobank Group in Lomé, Togo in June 2020.
Fellows will qualify to explore the following opportunities, including multinational product rollout via integration with Ecobank, service provider partnerships, access to Ecobank’s pan-African Banking Sandbox, and mentoring and networking support.
“As a banking group we continue to be amazed at the many ways in which fintechs are transforming banking across Africa. We look forward to the new innovations and partnership opportunities that will come with the 2020 edition,” said Ecobank Group executive for operations and technology Eddy Ogbogu.
Ecobank senior fintech advisor Djiba Diallo said the fintech challenge and fellowship had been improved upon to create additional value for both Ecobank and participating fintech startups.
“We took feedback from the past editions and one of the major innovations this year is the opportunity for shortlisted fintechs to access our APIs through our pan-African Sandbox,” Diallo said.
Applications for the competition are open here until May 1.
