Ecobank Group has announced the winners of its 2020 Ecobank Fintech Challenge following a virtual event streamed live from Accra, Ghana. Nokwary Technologies, from Ghana, emerged the winners of the competition – with the first and second runner up spots were taken by Ukheshe Payment Solutions and Growth Factor Technologies respectively.
The 1st to 3rd place winners will receive cash prizes worth US$10,0000, $7,000 and US$5,000 respectively.
Nokwary, from Ghana, is a fintech that uses AI to promote financial inclusion. Its AI Powered banking solution offers an opportunity for users to carry out transactions in a language to which they are familiar to using popular social media channels like Whatsapp.
South Africa based Ukheshe, which came in second, provides a bridge between the card and the cash economy. It has created the world’s first card acceptance platform that allows unbanked merchants/traders to accept and make digital payments.
In third place, Growth Factor is a fintech company that provides trade financing solutions designed for Micro-Small/Medium Entities (MSMEs) in order to encourage financial inclusion and growth. Its Nvoicia solution solves cash flow issues caused by delayed payments for SMEs, by enabling them to get paid in 24hrs when dealing with credit clients.
This year’s Finalists made it through an extremely competitive pool of over 600 applicants across Africa, Europe, North America and Asia.
All ten (10) finalists have officially been inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship, a one-year program which will give them the opportunity to explore opportunities for commercial partnerships with the Ecobank Group, and to possibly launch and scale products across Ecobank’s 33 country markets in the continent.
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