No Nigerian Startup Made the 2020 Ecobank Fintech Challenge Finals

Ecobank Group has announced the finalists of the 2020 Ecobank Fintech Challenge, and surprisingly no Nigerian Startup was selected.

The challenge, which is in its third edition, is designed in partnership with the advisory firm Konfidants to deepen collaboration between Ecobank and Fintechs with Africa-focused products.

This year, 10 finalists Fintechs from 7 different countries were shortlisted. The selected fintechs were drawn from a competitive pool of over 600 fintechs across Africa.

Congratulating the finalist, Ecobank’s Group Executive, Operations & Technology, Eddy Ogbogu lauded the selected startups for the impressive feat of making it to the finals. He added that he was looking forward to honouring them at the final event.

“we congratulate the 10 Fintechs that have made it to the 2020 Finals. This is an impressive cast of innovators and we look forward to the Final event where we will honour them and potentially build productive collaborations.

Eddy Ogbogu, Group Executive, Operations & Technology

The full list 2020 Finalists are Always In-Touch Real-time ( South Africa), Fluid AI (India), Franc Group (South Africa), Growth Factor (Ghana), Leaf Global Corporation (Rwanda), Moja Ride (Ivory Coast), Nokwary Technologies Limited (Ghana), Papersoft S.A (Mozambique), Ukheshe Payment Solutions (South Africa), PayChap Technologies (Tanzania).

No Nigeria Fintech Selected

The Ecobank fintech challenge was launched in January 2017 to challenge developers, programmers and FinTech innovators all over Africa to join forces in combating the continent’s most pressing banking issues.

In its first year, Nigerian fintech startup IroFit, won the challenge. The second edition in 2018 was won by Tanzanian fintech startup, Nala while 2 Nigerian fintech startups, Wallet.ng and Secapay made it to the finals, with Wallet.ng finishing 2nd.

This year, however, no Nigerian startups made it to the finals. South African startups dominated the list with 3 selections while other major tech hubs like Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ivory Coast were also represented.

This is the first time a Nigerian Startup did not make it to the Finals

Winner to get $10,000

The selected Finalists will pitch their products to a jury for the top 3 cash prizes worth US$10,000, US$7,000, and US$5,000. After the awards ceremony, all the finalists will be enrolled into Ecobank’s Fintech Fellowship where they will spend the next 6 months exploring partnership opportunities.

The finalists will get the opportunity to pursue collaboration with Ecobank and possibly launch products in Ecobank’s 33 African markets. It will also get the chance to become a pan-African service partner to Ecobank for Fintechs, offering joint services with the bank.

Other benefits include Access to networking and mentoring opportunities within the Ecobank Group and its vast network of global and African partners as well as possible integration with existing Ecobank digital offerings

Due to the current pandemic, the finalists will participate in an online Finale scheduled for August 21, instead of the Pitch and award ceremony that held at the bank’s global headquarters in Lomé, Togo last year.