Moni Africa and Touchand Pay, both Nigerian fintechs are among six finalists will compete for the the $50,000 ‘Ecobank Fintech Challenge Fellowship’ prize money at the Friday, October 28 grand finale.
Only Nigeria had two finalists for the event, now in its fifth edition, which is scheduled for the Ecobank Group Pan African Centre in Lomé, Togo, where finalists will also be admission to the fellowship of the programme, and benefit from Ecobank’s Fintech Mentoring Programme.
Others finalists of the challenge now in its fifth edition are Cauri Money, Senegal; DizzitUp, Togo; MaishaPay, Democratic Republic of Congo; and Paycode, South Africa. During this programme, Ecobank will help them to explore opportunities such as rolling out their products on a pan-African scale: an opportunity to further integrate with Ecobank and potentially launch their products or services in all or part of Ecobank’s 33-country pan-African ecosystem. They will also have access to the group’s pan-African banking sandbox to test and develop their products in the pan-African market.
Priority access to Ecobank’s venture capital partners to explore funding opportunities.
A statement by the Ecobank Group said the six fintechs stood out from a highly competitive pool of over 700 applicants from 59 countries in and outside Africa.
The statement quoted Tomisin Fashina, Ecobank Group’s Executive, Operations and Technology, expressed satisfaction at “the growing number of applications for the Ecobank Fintech Challenge. Applications have grown from about 412 applications in 2018 to over 700 in 2022.”
This, he said, “demonstrates a definite paradigm shift within the African continent, with Africans’ desire to transform technological innovation into a real lever for socio-economic development. We thank all applicants for their participation and applaud the highly impressive quality of their entries. We look forward to partnering with them for their groundbreaking digital financial solutions to our continent’s unique challenges and to help promoting financial inclusion on the continent.”
Gavin Tipper, CEO of Arise, partner and co-sponsor of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge 2022 competition, noted the central role fintechs play “in creating innovative digital solutions that improve customer experience, deliver value propositions and reduce costs. Our investments in fintechs are based on collaborative partnerships that advance financial inclusion on the continent and offer opportunities for mutual synergies with our balanced investment portfolio.”
Ecobank says the fintech fhallenge is designed to identify innovative fintechs that are ready to grow, that we can partner with, mentor and give access to Ecobank’s 33 African markets, so that they can realise their potential and become pan-African success stories.
“This competition is in line with Ecobank’s Fintech strategy of building partnerships with African fintechs to help transform digital finance and banking.
The Ecobank Fintech Challenge is organised in collaboration with partners across Africa and the world, including Arise, gold sponsor of the 2022 edition, Global Finder, TechCabal, Africa Fintech Network and Konfidants.
