Ecobank Fintech Challenge

The Ecobank Fintech Challenge by Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (Ecobank) aims to facilitate the development of innovative Fintech and banking related solutions that address one or more of the challenges as set out below. The following are the terms upon which you may participate in the Ecobank Fintech Challenge (Challenge). By participating in the Challenge, entrants agree to be bound by, and are deemed to have read and understood these Terms and Conditions (Terms).

Ecobank Fintech Challenge consists of three main phases:

Phase one: a pan-African competition. Open to all African tech innovators and fintechs.
Phase two: a Challenge Event and Awards Ceremony. For selected finalists.
Phase three: The Fellowship. A chance to explore Opportunities & Collaboration with Ecobank and receive mentoring support. For all finalists.

Selection into each of the three phases will be at Ecobank’s discretion, subject to established terms and conditions and judging rules. Ecobank reserves the right to disqualify any application if the applicant does not comply with these Terms. Ecobank reserves the right to establish further rules regarding the Challenge which will be published on ecobankfintech.com

Eligibility and Participation

All Africa based fintech start-ups are eligible to apply to the fintech challenge. For an application to be considered valid, it must meet all the requirements stipulated on the Application Forms. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted at the end of the evaluation period.

Originality

Each Entry must be of applicant’s own creation. Participation warrants that the Entry is and will be the applicant’s own original work and does not and will not infringe the intellectual property or proprietary rights of any third party, including, without limitation to, any third-party patents, copyrights or trademarks.
Applicants hereby agree not to initiate, back, maintain or sanction any action, claim or lawsuit against Ecobank or any other person, on the grounds that any use of an applicant’s Entry, infringes any of participant’s rights as creator of the Entry, including, without limitation, trademark rights and copyrights.

Fintech Challenges and Pain-points

Teams are to submit applications addressing one or more of the following challenges:

Customer experience
Credit Scoring
Financial Inclusion
Ecosystem Aggregation
Internal Tools
Payments
Any other relevant product categories

Scoring of Entries

A panel of experts will be responsible for judging applications. The panel will be responsible for the assessment, grading and selection of finalists.
Applications will be shortlisted based on (among other things) the following judging rubric:

Functionality
Innovation
Market Relevance
User experience
Commercial Prospects
Scalability

Ownership rights

All intellectual property rights in the ideas and applications of an applicant shall remain vested in the applicant who owns them. Any third party intellectual property rights shall remain vested in the third party or third parties who own them.
Third party intellectual property rights must be clearly identified by the participants as well as the applicable terms of license and other details relating to use of same.
Ecobank accepts no liability for any disagreement among applicant’s team members regarding ownership of any Intellectual Property Rights contained in any entry including, without limitation, the winning entry or for any inaccurate or incorrect information supplied or relied upon by any entrant during the Challenge.

Publicity

Ecobank’s goal is to use this platform to not only support and collaborate with African start-ups but to showcase and publicize them as well. For this reason, founders and members of selected finalists agree to provide (or allow to be taken) photographs/videos for marketing/promotional purposes of the Challenge and to make themselves reasonably available to Ecobank for the purposes of promotion and publicity of both their start-ups and the Challenge for a period of twelve (12) months following the end of the event.

Fellowship and Opportunities to Partner Ecobank

All finalists will be inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship and as Fellows will have the chance to explore a set of opportunities and possible partnerships with Ecobank including:

Multinational product roll out: A Once in a Lifetime opportunity to pursue collaboration with Ecobank and possibly launch products in Ecobank’s over 30 markets across Africa.
Service provider partnerships: start-ups may be selected by Ecobank to become a pan-African service partner to Ecobank.
Mentoring and networking support: founders will be conferred as Fintech Ecobank Fellows and will join the Fellowship for 3 months, granting them access to networking and mentoring opportunities within the Ecobank Group and its vast network of global and African partners. Fellows will keep the status of Ecobank Fintech Fellow for one year.
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.