Established in 1985 and headquartered in Lomé, Togo with a founding vision of an African bank for Africans, today the Ecobank Group is a world-class pan-African institution and a torchbearer for Africa with banking operations in 33 sub-Saharan African countries. It was named the 2020 African ‘Bank of the Year’ by The Banker, and 2021 ‘African SME Bank of the Year’ at the African Banker Awards. Widely acclaimed for its Open Banking strategy and for nurturing Fintech as partners, Ecobank runs several initiatives to foster Fintechs’ development across Africa, including its flagship annual Fintech Challenge competition, the Ecobank pan-African Banking Sandbox, Ecobank Marketplace eCommerce and EcobankPay solutions, among others.

Djiba Diallo, Ecobank Group’s Senior Fintech adviser said, “We are absolutely delighted to be the Gold Sponsor of the Africa Fintech Summits for 2022. We see our Open Banking strategy as a huge opportunity for Fintechs to access the 33+ African markets in which we operate, especially with the advent of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). This initiative will accelerate intra-African trade, and with our digital payments’ ecosystem, Ecobank is in the best position to facilitate financial transactions and boost business opportunities across the continent. Our participation at the Africa Fintech Summits demonstrates our continuous support for Fintechs to help transform digital finance and banking across Africa.”

While commenting on the sponsorship, Zekarias Amsalu, Co-Founder of AFTS and MD of Ibex Frontier noted, “As we are focusing on the theme of Africanisation of the Global Tech in this year’s summits, we are very excited to welcome Ecobank as our Gold Sponsor as its open and borderless banking strategy is going to be crucial for the African Fintech ecosystem that is growing globally as well as for the seamless cross-border and cross-currency transactions under AfCFTA.”

The 7th edition of AFTS will focus on the Africanisation of Global Tech, Fintech Regulation best practices, Diaspora Banking and Remittance, use-cases for decentralised finance (Defi), fintech funding trends, cross-border payments under the AfCFTA and the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), among other spotlight topics.

Tickets for AFTS Washington, D.C. are on sale now. To learn more or to register, visit https://africafintechsummit.com/.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of Ecobank Group.

About Ecobank Group

Ecobank Group is the leading independent pan-African banking group. It employs about 13,000 people and serves over 32 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

About Africa Fintech Summit

AFTS ( https://africafintechsummit.com ) is the premier global initiative dedicated to the African fintech ecosystem. AFTS is traditionally hosted in Washington, D.C., each April during the World Bank/IFC annual meeting week and in a different African city each November (most recently Lagos, Addis Ababa and Cairo). The summit is being held in a hybrid format, in person in the selected Venue in compliance with COVID-19 protocol and global live virtual delegates.  

Supported by an advisory board of thought leaders and fintech pioneers, AFTS is a unique space where innovative ideas are debated, investments mobilised, partnership deals signed and collaborations formed across sectors and geographies. AFTS is organised in partnership between Washington, D.C. based firms, strategic advisory group, Dedalus Global, and Pan-African consultancy advisory firm, Ibex Frontier.