Ecobank Group has announced that it will pilot the launch of its Pan-African Banking Sandbox allowing partners and fintechs across 33 African countries to access its Application Programming Interface (API) to develop financial solutions.
The announcement came on Monday, January 27 2020 at which Ecobank expressed its commitment in working with fintechs across Africa to bring more innovation at the banking sector.
Ecobank’s Group CEO, Ade Ayeyemi emphasizing on the sandbox program said;
“The sandbox is yet another indication that Ecobank firmly believes that digital banking is the future and the future is now. Hence our commitment to lead Africa into the new age of banking.”
Senior Ecobank Fintech Advisor, Djiba Diallo also said that the sandbox will be an avenue for collaboration between Ecobank and fintech platforms to further develop the fintech ecosystem in Africa.
A number of fintech platforms has been reportedly pre-selected for the banking sandbox pilot launch. These fintech platforms includes: Flutterwave (Nigeria), Africa’s Talking (Kenya), Callme2Work (Kenya), and Esicia ltd (Rwanda).
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on fintechs in Africa stressed on the need for a regulatory or industry sandboxes to help close the ever-increasing gap between fast-paced innovation and slow-moving regulations in Africa.
Some other African countries like Kenya, Mauritius and Sierra Leone have some form of regulatory sandbox. But Nigeria does not have a regulatory sandbox. Around December 2019, Fintech Association of Nigeria released a regulatory framework for fintech and cryptocurrency exchange service providers.
Ecobank banking sandbox initiative, if successful, will cut across 1,200 branchies in 33 African countries and could be a gamechanger for Africa’s financial sector.
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