By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria’s Trove Finance has emerged as one of the five finalists of the 2021 Ecobank Fintech Challenge.
The company is one of the two Nigerian companies that will be jostling win the challenge, in its fourth edition, designed to help financial technology companies with Africa focused products join forces with the leading pan-African lender to provide Africans with groundbreaking financial services.
The finalists, who emerged from a competitive pool of nearly 900 fintechs that entered the 2021 Fintech Challenge will participate in a virtual finale to be held next month.
The 2021 finalists are led by Anadata Limited from Nigeria which developed Chota, an automated Address Verification System that uses Big Data Analysis to accelerate the process while improving accuracy.
Motito from Ghana promotes financial inclusion in Africa through its ‘buy now pay later’ platform which allows small businesses to offer interest-free credit at the point of sale.
OKO FINANCE from Mali offers new-generation index insurance to smallholder farmers, that are mobile-based and include access to affordable loans, weather alerts and farming tips.
Fourthline Limited from Kenya developed Pollen which is designed to be a USSD ecosystem for conducting cross-telecom payments and savings for the unbanked.
Trove Finance from Nigeria built software (APIs & Tools) that allows African individuals and financial institutions (banks, brokers and fund managers) access and trade the United States and global stocks
The finalists will pitch their products to a jury which will select the top three most promising products. The top three finalists will receive cash prizes of $15,000, $12,000 and $10,000 respectively.
All the finalists will be enrolled into Ecobank’s Fintech Fellowship where they will spend six months exploring partnership opportunities, including Multinational Product Roll Out: An opportunity for eligible Fintechs to pursue collaboration with Ecobank and possibly launch products in Ecobank’s 33 African markets; Service Provider Partnerships: A chance to partner with Ecobank on pan-African products and services roll out and undertake other joint venture; Mentoring and Networking Support: Access to networking and mentoring opportunities within the Ecobank Group and its vast network of global and African partners; and Digital Offering integration: An opportunity for Fintechs to potentially integrate with Ecobank’s existing digital offerings.
Speaking on this, Mr Tomisin Fashina, Group Executive, Operations & Technology, Ecobank Group, said: “The five finalists in this year’s edition have shown impressive products from a competitive group of nearly 900 applicants. I would like to personally congratulate them and express my excitement at the opportunity to work with them to bring their innovative ideas to fruition.”
Finalists competing for the top prize could be inducted into the coveted Ecobank Fintech Fellowship to pursue commercial partnerships with the Ecobank Group with access to 33 presence markets across Africa; opportunity to pursue integration with Ecobank and potentially launch products with the Group; mentoring and networking forums leveraging the Group’s partners; Priority Access to Ecobank’s Venture Capital partners for funding opportunities.
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Business Post Contributor