Six African fintech companies have been declared finalists of this year’s Ecobank Fintech Challenge, and will now compete for a top price of US$50,000 and admission to the Ecobank Fintech Challenge Fellowship programme.
Ecobank is a leading independent pan-African banking group that serves over 32 million customers in the consumer, commercial and corporate banking sectors across 33 African countries.
Its annual Fintech Challenge offers early-stage and mature startups the potential to partner with Ecobank across those 33 countries, and is now in its fifth year. Fintech startups that are aligned with the bank’s strategic objectives stand a chance to win an overall cash prize of US$50,000, and the opportunity to partner and scale their solutions with Ecobank.
The six finalists were chosen from over 700 applications from 59 countries, and will compete for the top prize of US$50,000 and admission to the Ecobank Fintech Challenge Fellowship programme at a grand final in Togo at the end of this month.
The finalists for the 2022 edition, in alphabetical order, are Cauri Money (Senegal), DizzitUp (Togo), MaishaPay (Democratic Republic of Congo), Moni Africa (Nigeria), Paycode (South Africa) and Touch and Pay (Nigeria).
“I am impressed by the growing number of applications for the Ecobank Fintech Challenge. Applications have grown from about 412 applications in 2018 to over 700 in 2022. This demonstrates a definite paradigm shift within the African continent, with Africans’ desire to transform technological innovation into a real lever for socio-economic development,” said Tomisin Fashina, Ecobank Group executive for operations and technology.
“We thank all applicants for their participation and applaud the highly impressive quality of their entries. We look forward to partnering with them for their groundbreaking digital financial solutions to our continent’s unique challenges and to help promoting financial inclusion on the continent.”
