The Ecobank Group, a pan-African banking group, is inviting African fintech entrepreneurs to participate in the fourth edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge.
Applications are now open for all start-ups and developers in any of Africa’s 54 countries, as well as global Africa-focused Fintechs.
The Fintech Challenge aligns with the Bank’s commitment to championing digitization by providing an opportunity for innovative African start-ups to promote their fintech solutions.
The start-ups may be able to collaborate with Ecobank in order to scale their solutions across Ecobank’s 33 African markets as well as its international operations in France.
Following the Finals and Awards ceremony in November 2021, all selected Finalists will be inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship. The top three winners will each receive a cash prize of $15,000, $12,000, and $10,000.
However, all Fellows will be eligible to pursue the following opportunities with the bank:
- Multinational product rollout: 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 partners 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.
Mr. Ade Ayeyemi, Chief Executive Officer of Ecobank Group, reaffirmed Ecobank’s commitment to fostering innovation across the continent, stating, “The global impact of COVID-19 has accelerated the dire need to digitize and transform banking operations.” As a banking group, we are more convinced than ever that innovation and technology are the future of banking, and we reaffirm our ongoing commitment to identify and support Africa’s brightest developers in order to promote their solutions and help improve our services through the Ecobank Fintech Challenge.”
Ecobank successfully launched the Ecobank Investor App, which was originally developed by Finance Mobile, a start-up from the 2017 Ecobank Fintech Fellows cohort. Following the successful launch of the app in nine Ecobank markets and the current expansion into new countries, Ecobank is working to finalize additional partnerships with Fellows from the 2020 Fintech Challenge.
“We are firm believers that Africa’s talent pool is enormous and requires specialized and targeted mentorships to fully crystallize and ready Fintech startups for business engagements,” said Dr. Tomisin Fashina, Operations and Technology Executive, Ecobank Group. We are creating a learning experience through mentorship sessions with in-house, high-level technical teams and with our global partners through the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship to help shape and reshape the strategy and focus of African Fintechs”.
The Ecobank Fintech Challenge was created in collaboration with the advisory firm Konfidants and is supported by a number of partners in Africa and around the world, including ACCION, Catalyst Fund, Nedbank VC, and Cellulant. Applications will be accepted until September 20, 2021.
Visit https://Ecobankfintechchallenge.com for more information on the competition, benefits, and how to apply.
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