The duo of Wallet.ng and Secapay have been shortlisted among the eleven startups that would challenge at this year’s edition of Pan-African bank, Ecobank Fintech Challenge.
The Fintech Challenge, which with cash prizes and enrollment into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship is a competition for Africa-focused technology startups that run for a period of six months during which Ecobank Fintech Fellows will benefit from an opportunity to further explore partnerships with the Ecobank Group.
At the grand final, which will take place on August 30, 2018 at the global headquarters of Ecobank in Lomé, Togo, the start-ups will exhibit and pitch their products to a jury for the Ecobank Africa Fintech Prize, which will be awarded the top innovator and two runners-up. The top three innovators will win cash prizes worth US$10,000, US$7,000, and US$5,000 respectively.
According to Ecobank, after the ceremony, the Bank promised that it will put the startups in a fellowship through which the will benefit from an opportunity to further explore partnerships with the Ecobank Group.
Speaking on the essence of the Fintech Challenge, Group CEO of Ecobank, Ade Ayeyemi, said: “At Ecobank our digital strategy is spectacularly successful and has changed the landscape of African banking, so it goes without saying that we see fintech as a vital component for the economic transformation of the continent and the prosperity of its citizens. We want to do all we can to encourage the next generations of fintech entrepreneurs as they will be a driving force in propelling Africa into a globally competitive power in commercial services, enjoying significantly increased market share.”
The eleven start-ups are:
Lypa (Kenya), Wallet.ng (Nigeria) (https://Wallet.ng/), Nala (Tanzania), Litee (Benin), SESO Global (South Africa), InvestED (Sierra Leone), Eversend (France), Secapay (Nigeria), Virtual Identity (South Africa), MojiPay (Togo), Awamo (Germany)