Tanzania's Nala, South Africa’s Virtual Identity and Nigeria's Wallet.ng win big at the 2018 Ecobank Fintech Challenge

Nala, Virtual Identity and Wallet.ng have emerged winners of the 2018 Ecobank Fintech Challenge at a ceremony held at pan-African banks headquarters in Lome, Togo.

Nala, based in Tanzania, a mobile money application that works offline, beat the ten other finalists to emerge as the winner of the competition. Virtual Identity from South Africa and Wallet.ng from Nigeria emerged first and second runners-up.

The three startups won cash prizes worth $10,0000, $7,000 and $5,000 respectively.

Ade Ayeyemi, Ecobank Group CEO, praised the finalists for their innovative solutions and welcomed them to the Fellowship.

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“We are proud of the impressive startups that made it to our 2018 final. They are shining examples of the entrepreneurial spirit and creativity that will propel our continent’s global competitiveness in the commercial services markets, and I sincerely expect some, if not all, of them to be the business titans of tomorrow. They have my congratulations and we look forward to working closely with all eleven Fellows over the next year to deliver innovative banking services at better price-points that will improve the lives of Africans.”

Ecobank inducted all the 11 finalists into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship programme to explore commercial partnerships with the pan-African banking giant.

Launched in 2017, Ecobank Fintech Challenge brought together fintech start-ups and innovators, policymakers, investors and development organisations from across the world to network, witness the 2018 finalists’ exhibitions, and celebrate the induction of the finalists into the 2018 Ecobank Fintech Fellowship.

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