{Ecobank, the leading independent pan-African banking group, has launched EcobankFintech Challenge, a competition for African technology start-ups to build and deploy innovative fintech and banking solutions across the continent. Ecobank is currently accepting applications at http:\/\/ecobankfintech.com\/ from start-ups and developers in all 54 African countries. } <\/p>\n
Twenty finalists of the Fintech Challenge will be invited to an award ceremony and an innovation fair at the global headquarters of Ecobank in Lome, Togo. The top three start-ups at the fair will win cash prizes worth US$10,000, US$7,000, and US$5,000 respectively. The finalists will also be conferred Ecobank Innovation Fellows and will qualify to explore a once-in-a-lifetime partnership opportunity with Ecobank Group that includes: <\/p>\n
\u2022Major start-up funding: worth up to US$500,000 <\/p>\n
\u2022Multinational product roll-out: for the most commercially viable start-ups to launch their products in Ecobank\u2019s 33 markets across Africa <\/p>\n
\u2022Service provider partner deals: for start-ups with deep capabilities to become a pan-African service partner within Ecobank\u2019s country ecosystem<\/p>\n
\u2022Mentoring and networking support: founders will be conferred as Ecobank Innovation Fellows for a period of one year, granting them access to networking and mentoring from Ecobank\u2019s vast global network of technology leaders, fintech experts, investors and management coaches<\/p>\n
Ade Ayeyemi, Ecobank Group CEO said, \u201cThis is one of the biggest support packages put together by any bank or investor to support Africa\u2019s technology start-ups. Fintech is the future of banking; that is why we are opening our doors and vast market infrastructure to support Africa\u2019s brightest innovators.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eddy Ogbogu, Ecobank Group Executive for Operations and Technology said, \u201cAt the core of EcobankFintech Challenge is a mission to drive Africa\u2019s fintech revolution. Ecobank is committing resources to this initiative to support the most serious product innovators and fintech companies to grow.\u201d <\/p>\n
EcobankFintech Challenge was designed in partnership with the advisory firm Konfidants and is supported by several partners across Africa and the world. Applications for the competition will close on 14 April, 2017. <\/p>\n
More information on the competition, benefits and how to apply can be found on the competition\u2019s website at http:\/\/ecobankfintech.com\/<\/p>\n
You can also interact with us on social media via our Facebook page (facebook.com\/ecobankfintech ) and Twitter page (twitter.com\/ecobank_fintech)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Ecobank, the leading independent pan-African banking group, has launched EcobankFintech Challenge, a competition for African technology start-ups to build and deploy innovative fintech and banking solutions across the continent. Ecobank is currently accepting applications at http:\/\/ecobankfintech.com\/ from start-ups and developers in all 54 African countries. } Twenty finalists of the Fintech Challenge will be invited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-32442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32442"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=32442"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=32442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}