Tanzanian payments startup Nala has been named winner of the annual Ecobank Fintech Challenge, walking away with US$10,000 in prize money.
Nala, which helps mobile money users evolve from a text-based USSD interface to a simplified Venmo-like app, pitched its solution alongside 10 other startups at a ceremony on August 30 at the global headquarters of Ecobank in Lomé, Togo.
After being named overall winner of the annual challenge, which is run annually by Ecobank and was last year won by Nigerian fintech startup IroFit, Nala walks away with US$10,000 in prize money.
Nigeria’s Wallet.ng came in second, winning US$7,000, while South Africa’s Virtual Identity was third, securing US$5,000. The other startups that pitched were Lypa (Kenya), Litee (Benin), SESO Global (South Africa), InvestED (Sierra Leone), Eversend (France), Secapay (Nigeria), MojiPay (Togo) and awamo (Uganda).
Ecobank will enroll all 11 finalists into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship. The fellowship will run for a period of six months, during which the startups will benefit from an opportunity to further explore partnerships with the Ecobank Group.
