Ecobank Group announces 2020 edition of Fintech Challenge

By George Mangula

Ecobank Group has launched the third edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge where a number ofAfrican  fintech entrepreneurs are to compete for top prizes. The Fintech Challenge gives African start-ups the opportunity to promote their fintech solutions, and potentially  partner with Ecobank to roll-out  their solutions across Ecobank’s 33 markets in Africa including Uganda as well as France.

“Ecobank welcomes submissions from all start-ups and developers in any of Africa’s 54 countries to enter its 2020 Ecobank Fintech Challenge,” the bank says in a statement

According to the statement, all all Finalists will be inducted as Ecobank Fintech Fellows, participate in a business boot camp followed by an Awards and Innovation Fair at the headquarters of the Ecobank Goup in Lomé, Togo in June 2020.

Ecobank Group Executive, Operations & Technology, Eddy Ogbogu noted that “As a banking group we continue to be amazed at the many ways in which fintechs are transforming banking across Africa. We look forward to the new innovations and partnership opportunities  that will come with the 2020 edition.”

Fellows will qualify to explore the following opportunities including: Multinational product roll out: an opportunity to pursue integration with Ecobank and potentially launch products in Ecobank’s Pan African footprint; Service provider partnerships where Ecobank may select start-ups as a pan-African service partner within the bank’s ecosystem.

There will also be 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 and mentoring and networking support in the network of global and African partners of the Group.

Ecobank Senior Fintech Advisor, Djiba Diallo said, “The Ecobank Fintech challenge and fellowship have been improved upon to create even additional value for Ecobank and the Fintechs. We took feedback from the past editions and one of the major innovation this year is  the opportunity for shortlisted Fintech’s to access our APIs through our Pan African Sandbox.”

Ecobank Fintech Challenge was designed in partnership with the advisory firm Konfidants and is supported by several partners across Africa and globally. Applications for the competition will close on April 12, 2020.