Ecobank has listed the final eleven startups that will grace the second edition of the bank's annual Fintech Challenge in Lome, Togo. A statement issued revealed that the list includes startups from across the African continent and Europe.
These are; Lypa (Kenya), Wallet.ng (Nigeria), Nala (Tanzania), Litee (Benin), SESO Global (South Africa), InvestED (Sierra Leone), Secapay (Nigeria), Virtual Identity (South Africa), and MojiPay (Togo).
While those from Europe are Eversend (France), and Awamo (Germany).
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There will be an awards ceremony "in honor of the finalists" on August 30, 2018, at the global headquarters of Ecobank in Lomé. It is at the event that these will exhibit and pitch their products to a jury. The winners will receive a total of $22,000.
"The top three innovators will win cash prizes worth US$10,000, US$7,000, and US$5,000 respectively," reads the statement.
Eventually, all the startups shall enroll in the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship, which will run for a period of six months. During this period, they "will benefit from an opportunity to further explore partnerships with the Ecobank Group".
They also stand to gain from multinational product roll-out support, service provider & ecosystem partner deals, and technical & mentoring support.
This year's finalist number is less than the inaugural's total which was 20, zeroing down to IroFit, Kudi Inc and One Finance - all from Nigeria - as the top 3.
Ecobank has operations in 36 countries across Africa and boasts of a licensed operation in Paris and representative offices in Beijing, Dubai, and London.
The Fintech challenge is a partnership with advisory firm Konfidants bringing together African developers, programmers, and fintech innovators.