PRESS INFORMATION

January 27, 2020 – The Ecobank Group announced today the pilot launch of its Pan-African Banking Sandbox. The Sandbox will allow Partners and Fintechs to access Ecobank’s Application Programming Interface (APIs) for the development of innovative solutions for the 33 African countries where it operates.

The sandbox signals a deepening of Ecobank’s commitment to working with African fintechs in furthering digital banking across the continent. This follows the leading Pan African Banking group’s appointment of a Group Senior Fintech Advisor in 2019.   With these notable actions, the annual Ecobank Fintech Challenge is evolving beyond a competition to a marketplace of fintech solutions.

The Group CEO, Mr. Ade Ayeyemi emphasises that: “The sandbox is yet another indication that Ecobank firmly believes that digital banking is the future and the future is now. Hence our commitment to lead Africa into the new age of banking.

Group Senior Fintech Advisor, Djiba Diallo stressing the significance of the sandbox noted that “it will create a great avenue for collaboration between Ecobank and Fintechs, give Fintechs the chance to further innovate while developing the capacity of the wider fintech ecosystem on the continent.”

Five African Fintechs have been pre-selected for the pilot launch:

• InTouch (Senegal): Provides merchants and businesses with unique solutions to accept different payment providers whilst distributing an extensive catalog of digital services across multiple countries.
• Flutterwave (Nigeria): A leader in payments in Africa, providing reliable payments solutions for businesses globally.
• Africa’s Talking (Kenya): A unified API platform for software developers in Africa building SMS, USSD, Voice, Payments and Airtime applications.
• Callme2Work (Kenya): A one stop platform connecting specialists across a wide range of expertise to clients.
• Esicia Ltd (Rwanda): A software development and system integration provider -  digitizing business processes for institutions across the public and private sectors.

Media Contact
Christiane Bossom
Group Communications Manager
Email: cbossom@ecobank.com 
Tel: +228 22 21 03 03

About Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (‘ETI’ or ‘The Group’)
Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (‘ETI’) is the parent company of the Ecobank Group, the leading independent pan-African banking group. The Ecobank Group employs over 15,000 people and serves about 20 million customers in the consumer, commercial and corporate banking sectors across 33 African countries. The Group has a banking license in France and representative offices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Johannesburg, South Africa; Beijing, China; London, the UK and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. The Group offers a full suite of banking products, services and solutions including bank and deposit accounts, loans, cash management, advisory, trade, securities, wealth and asset management. ETI is listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchanges in Lagos, the Ghana Stock Exchange in Accra, and the Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières in Abidjan. For further information please visit www.ecobank.com