Trove Finance, a Nigerian-based worldwide share selling app, has won the fourth edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge, according to the Ecobank Group.
On December 9, the winner was declared at the grand finale. The Ecobank Fintech Challenge is the Ecobank Group’s flagship event to assist and inspire early-stage fintech from around Africa. Each of the five finalists pitched to the tech-savvy jury in the virtual grand finale, which was streamed live from Accra, Ghana.
Trove Finance’s app allows African financial institutions and individuals to purchase, sell, and trade any publicly traded equities, bond, or exchange-traded fund on the US, Chinese, Nigerian, or other global stock markets for as little as 1,000 Naira (about $2). Trove Finance’s solution fills a void by offering an easy-to-use digital investment platform that increases investment participation and inclusion by offering a secure and cost-effective alternative to the current paper-based investment process, which is largely provided by brokers charging exorbitant fees.
“The array of fintech services and solutions entered in this year’s edition was of such a high standard that the jury faced a really difficult task whittling the hundreds of entrants down to the final five and, ultimately, selecting Trove Finance as the overall winner,” Ade Ayeyemi, Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Group, said in congratulating the finalists. All five finalists will be inducted into Ecobank’s Fintech Fellowship, where they will be mentored and networked, have access to our Banking Sandbox to further develop their proposals, and have the opportunity to collaborate with Ecobank to roll it out across our 33-country footprint. The Ecobank Fintech Challenge advances our goal of seeing fintech as viable business partners with whom we can collaborate to bring innovative solutions to our clients.”
This year’s finalists were chosen from over 890 entrants from 44 nations in a fiercely contested competition. The first, second, and third place winners won awards of US$15,000, US$12,000, and US$10,000, respectively, in addition to being accepted into the Ecobank Fintech Challenge Fellowship program.
“Winning the 2021 Ecobank Fintech Challenge is a genuine honor and publicly acknowledges the huge potential of our software to spread asset ownership,” said Oluwatomi Solanke, CEO of Trove. I commend the Ecobank Group for putting African fintech on the map through this competition and for continuing to support us through its Fellowship program. The potential to work with Ecobank and expand our app to 33 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa would be the cherry on top, significantly speeding our growth.”
OKO Finance from Mali came in second with its low-cost crop insurance solutions for smallholder farmers in Mali, which were supplied through cell phones. Thanks to continuous weather monitoring via satellite data, OKO insurance products are automated and promptly compensate farmers when they are harmed by bad weather.
Motito, based in Ghana, came in third place with a solution that promotes financial inclusion in Africa via a ‘buy-now-pay-later’ platform that allows small companies to offer clients interest-free loans at the moment of sale.
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Ecobank Fintech Challenge 2021: Ecobank Group Announces the Top Five Finalists