Ecobank Fintech Challenge 2020

About the Challenge

The Ecobank Fintech Challenge identifies and partners Fintechs that are ready to scale and provides them with support and access to Ecobank’s 33 African markets so they can grow to become true Pan African Fintech success stories.

The Challenge is open to all Fintechs on the African continent. Interested Fintechs can apply by sending details of their product as well as a demo here. These products must address one or more of a specific set of pain points which can be found here.

The selected finalists participate in the Ecobank Fintech Innovation Fair, with the top 3 finalists winning cash prizes. 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.

What’s in it for you: Benefits and Opportunities

Become a finalist; get inducted as an Ecobank Fintech Fellow and stand a chance to explore the following opportunities:

• Multinational Product Roll-Out – Once in a lifetime opportunity to pursue integration with Ecobank and potentially launch products in Ecobank’s over 30 markets across Africa.
• Competition Cash Prizes – The top three winners at the Challenge will be awarded $10,000, $7000, and $5000 cash prizes respectively.
• Service Provider Partnerships – Start-ups may be selected by Ecobank as local country-level partner in any of Ecobank’s 33 country ecosystem.
• 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.
• Mentoring And Networking Support – founders will be inducted as Ecobank Fintech Fellows, granting them access to networking and mentoring opportunities within the Ecobank Group and its vast network of global and African partners.
• Integration With Existing Ecobank Digital Offerings – The Challenge offers opportunities for Fintechs to potentially integrate with Ecobank’s existing digital offerings. The existing digital offerings include Ecobank Omni, Ecobank electronic financial supply chain(eFSC), Ecobank Xpress, Ecobank Mobile APP or USSD, MasterPass™ QR, mVISA™ & mCash, etc. You can learn more about these platforms HERE. We’d like applicants to pitch us how their solutions can add value to these existing Ecobank digital offerings.

Applicant’s Journey

Pain-Points: What we’re looking for

Customer Experience

• Ecobank is looking for products that offer solutions and innovations in the following areas:
• Digital customer onboarding (consumers, SME/Merchant, Investment Banking)
• Improve customer experience at branches
• Improve customer experience online
• Digitization of the customer journey

Credit Scoring

• We welcome innovative solutions that help improve lending to SMEs. For example:
• 360° view on customers and prospects of financial activities
• Digital Lending for SMEs

Ecosystem Aggregation

• We are interested in working with innovators offering solutions on the following:
• SME/Merchants onboarding on payment integration
• Niche merchant aggregation
• Provide easy access to non-smart phone users

Internal Tools

• Digital solution to improve performance of salesforce
• Agency banking: solutions that enable agents to offer more services

Payments

• We’d be happy to learn how you can help us solve problems around
• Offline Mobile to Mobile payments (Dead Zones)

Any Other Relevant Product Categories

• Any other solution that you believe will revolutionize the banking sector in Africa.