Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian financial technology startups, Moni Africa and TouchandPay, have made the six finalists chosen to jostle for the top price of $50,000 and admission to the Ecobank Fintech Challenge Fellowship programme.
Following extremely strong competition from over 700 fintechs from 59 countries, the two Nigerian startups will be at the grand finale on October 28 at the Ecobank Group Pan African Centre in Lomé, Togo.
The companies are part of the finalists from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Togo.
The others are Cauri Money from Senegal, DizzitUp from Togo, MaishaPay from the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Paycode from South Africa.
This 5th edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge, sponsored by Arise, will allow all finalists to benefit from Ecobank’s Fintech Mentoring Programme.
During this programme, Ecobank will help them explore opportunities, including rolling out their products on a pan-African scale, thus opening up 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.
Others include providing access to the group’s pan-African Banking Sandbox to test and develop their products in the pan-African market and prioritising access to Ecobank’s venture capital partners to explore funding opportunities.
Speaking on this, Mr Tomisin Fashina, Ecobank Group Executive, Operations and Technology, said, “I am impressed by 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 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 promote financial inclusion on the continent.”
On his part, Mr Gavin Tipper, CEO of Arise, partner and co-sponsor of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge 2022 competition, said: “Fintechs play a central role 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.”
The Ecobank Fintech Challenge 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. It aligns with Ecobank’s Fintech strategy of building partnerships with African fintechs to help transform digital finance and banking.
