The Empower Africa Business Platform is Now Live !!!
The competition, which seeks to foster innovation and partnership within the African financial landscape, attracted over 1,550 applications from 70 countries.
Forty startups initially made it to the semi-finals, with twelve ultimately selected to compete in the grand finale scheduled for September 27 in Lomé, Togo.
The event will be live-streamed on Ecobank’s social media platforms for a global audience.
Two Kenyan startups, BuuPass and Melanin Kapital Neobank, are among the finalists, alongside Nigeria’s Sawport Video Banking as a Virtual Branch and Sproutly.
The rest of the finalists are Daba Finance (Ivory Coast), EasyEquities (South Africa), Exuus (Rwanda), MiaPay (Togo), PaySika (Cameroon), PROBOUTIK (Senegal), Vaultpay (DRC) and YMO Africa (Guinea).
The Ecobank Fintech Challenge offers startups the opportunity to partner with the bank and scale their solutions across its network of 35 African countries.
The ultimate winner will receive the US$50,000 cash prize and the chance to collaborate with Ecobank.
“We are delighted to partner with ISA to support the development of solar energy in Africa,” said Alain Ebobissé, CEO of Africa50. “This partnership will help to accelerate the deployment of solar energy in Africa and improve the lives of millions of Africans,” he added.

Founded in 2021, MyCover.ai aims to disrupt the traditional insurance industry in Africa by leveraging cutting-edge technology to provide accessible, transparent, and personalized insurance products to individuals and businesses alike..

Egyptian healthtech startup Reme-D has secured $1.45 million in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Anara Impact Capital.

Kenyan startup Octavia Carbon has successfully raised $5 million in seed funding to advance its innovative direct air capture (DAC) technology, which aims to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere using geothermal resources, particularly waste heat.