The Ecobank Fintech Challenge is open to all startups with innovative solutions addressing the needs of the African population and its diaspora. It has been created with two objectives in mind:
- Identify and support Fintechs that are ready to scale up with resources, funding, partnerships, etc. in Ecobank’s 33 African markets.
- Leverage these pan-African Fintech success stories and the solutions they offer to improve Africa’s financial integration and economic development.
The Ecobank Fintech Challenge identifies and partners Fintechs that are ready to scale and provides them with support and access to opportunities in Ecobank’s 35 African markets. The goal? To contribute to their growth as potential Pan African Fintech success stories.
The Challenge is open to all Fintechs with Africa-focused solutions. The solution must address one or more of these pain points. Interested Fintechs can apply here
The selected finalists participate in the Ecobank Fintech Challenge Grand Finale. The ultimate winner for 2024 will be awarded a cash prize of $50,000. All finalists are inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship, which affords them the opportunity to explore deals, integration, and commercial partnership with the Ecobank Group.
Eligibility Criteria
Topics to consider for participation: The Challenge is not just any other competition. It encourages participating startups and developers to consider the below pain points and address them through their innovations - eventually leading to a better Africa.
Customer experience
- Improved customer experience both online and at the branch
- Digital customised solutions using analytics and AI
- Efficient customer support, complaint resolution and personalised self-service
- Defined reporting outcomes to measure value
Financial inclusion
- Digital customer onboarding (Consumers, SME/Merchant, Investment Banking)
- Increasing our payment wallet size across our network
Credit scoring
- 360° view on customers' and prospects' financial activities with other FIs
- Digitisation of the lending journey for SMEs
Ecosystem aggregration
- SME/Merchants onboarding and payment integration
- Niche merchant aggregation through tailored solutions per sector
- Mobile collections that synchronise with our Xpress point system
Internal tools
- Digital solutions that improve sales force performance
Payments
- Offline mobile to mobile payments (Dead Zones)
- Increasing our payment wallet size within the African context
Offered Benefits
The Challenge is the ideal launchpad for African Fintech innovators and startups to scale up to the next grand level with full support from Ecobank. It brings together a diverse pool of Africa-focused innovations to solve Africa’s financial inclusion pain points.
- Multinational product rollout: Commercial partnership and integration opportunities to access and launch products across Ecobank’s 33 African markets
- Service provider partnerships: Business acceleration and capacity building support along with the opportunity to be a country-level partner in Ecobank’s ecosystem.
- Access to our pan-African banking Sandbox: Support of a dedicated team to carry out Ecobank's API tests and enable better integration of Fintech products in the pan-African market.
- Well-established partner network: Easy access and relationship building with global and African accelerators, potential investors and mentors because of Ecobank Fintech Fellowship.
- Competition cash prizes: $50,000 no-strings attached cash prize support to the winning company along with more cash prizes to the top three winners.
- Integration with our existing digital offerings: Launchpad to leverage our existing products such as Omni, Electronic Financial Supply Chain (eFSC), Xpress, Mobile App, MasterPass™ QR, mVISA™ & mCash, etc.
The Fintech Fellowship opens up a whole new world of benefits, partnerships and support for every finalist of the Challenge.
