By Adedapo Adesanya
Ecobank Group has launched the fifth edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge with a $50,000 cash prize for the victorious financial technology entrepreneur.
The pan-African lender said the top winner will also have the opportunity to partner and scale their solutions across Ecobank’s 33 African markets.
Ten finalists will be inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship after the finals and awards ceremony which will take place in October 2022.
In addition, all Fellows will qualify to explore the following opportunities with the Bank and its partners. Some of the benefits include multinational product rollout. This will provide an opportunity to pursue integration with Ecobank and potentially launch products in all or part of Ecobank’s pan-African 33-country ecosystem.
Ecobank also said it may select some fintechs as pan-African service partners within the Bank’s ecosystem.
Beneficiaries will have 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.
Ecobank also said there will be priority access to Ecobank’s Venture Capital partners for funding exploration.
Speaking on this, Mr Ade Ayeyemi, Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Group, said “Ecobank believes that the only way to transform financial services in Africa is for Pan-African banks like Ecobank to continually support and collaborate with innovative Fintechs and start-ups. We invite and welcome Africa’s best Fintechs to work with us through the 2022 Challenge.”
On his part, Dr Tomisin Fashina, Operations and Technology Executive, Ecobank Group said, “The uniqueness of the Challenge is that it welcomes both early stage and mature start-up Fintechs alike and seeks to align them with different kinds of partnership opportunities within Ecobank that match their differing levels of maturity.”
The Ecobank Fintech Challenge was designed in partnership with an international advisory firm, Konfidants and is supported by partners across Africa and globally. So far 46 Fellows have been admitted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship programme since it was launched in 2017.
Fintech companies and developers originating from any of Africa’s 54 countries, as well as global Africa-centered fintechs, are eligible to enter the Fintech Challenge by visiting: https://bit.ly/3KnrDz2. Applications can be made until September 16, 2022.
