Nigerian stock trading app Trove has won the Ecobank Fintech Challenge

App for trading global shares in Nigeria Trove has won the fourth edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge, taking home a US$15,000 prize and a place in the bank’s Fintech Challenge Fellowship program.

Each year, the Ecobank Group hosts its Fintech Challenge, with the five finalists of this year’s edition chosen from over 890 entrants from 44 countries.

Trove was named the winner at a virtual grand finale on December 9, which was live streamed from Accra, Ghana, and featured each of the five finalists pitching to a tech-savvy jury. The app allows African-based financial institutions and individuals to buy, sell, and trade any publicly traded equity, bond, or exchange traded fund on the US, Chinese, Nigerian, or other global stock exchanges.

OKO Finance of Mali came in second with its affordable crop insurance products for smallholder farmers distributed via mobile phone, while Ghana’s Motito came in third with its “buy now, pay later” solution. The first, second, and third place winners received cash prizes of US$15,000, US$12,000, and US$10,000, respectively, as well as acceptance into the Ecobank Fintech Challenge Fellowship program.

“Winning the 2021 Ecobank Fintech Challenge is a true honor, and it publicly validates our app’s enormous potential to expand asset ownership.” I commend the Ecobank Group for bringing African fintechs to the forefront through this competition and for continuing to support us through its Fellowship program. The opportunity to partner with Ecobank and roll out our app across 33 Sub-Saharan African countries would be the icing on the cake, significantly accelerating our growth,” said Trove CEO Oluwatomi Solanke.

According to Ecobank Group CEO Ade Ayeyemi, the quality of the fintech services and solutions entered in this year’s edition was so high that the jury had a difficult time narrowing the hundreds of entrants down to the final five and ultimately selecting Trove Finance as the overall winner.

“All five finalists will be inducted into Ecobank’s Fintech Fellowship, during which they will receive mentoring and networking support, can use our Banking Sandbox to access our APIs to further develop their propositions, and could potentially partner with Ecobank to roll it out across our 33-country footprint.” “The Ecobank Fintech Challenge advances our vision of approaching fintechs as potential commercial partners with whom we can collaborate to provide innovative solutions to our customers,” he said.