Mi Nafa, a fintech based in Burkina Faso, is the only French-speaking African start-up south of the Sahara, which is among the 20 companies shortlisted by the pan-African banking group Ecobank, as part of its fintech competition launched in early 2017. The other French-speaking fintech chosen in this context is the Algerian Payvite.
Unsurprisingly, Nigerian projects were the most numerous (8 in total), followed by projects from Kenya (5), Ghana (4) from South Africa (1) and the USA (1). These shortlisted companies will be officially presented on June 21, at an official ceremony in Lome at the headquarters of the banking group.
According to the information that announced this competition, they will benefit from an overall support of $ 500,000. The most viable projects will be marketed through the network of subsidiaries of the Togolese group which is present in 33 African countries. Along the same lines, candidates for the best performing products will also be introduced to Ecobank’s larger network, which covers that of its main shareholders including the South African Nedbank and the Qatari Qatar National Bank.
Mi-Nafa, elected official, is a platform that allows banks to grant and monitor microloans easily and quickly while reducing operational costs. The start-up thus places the mobile at the heart of its technology, by connecting banks to customers via an application, allowing all Africans to access an interactive and innovative offer of financial services.
It is difficult to know if the Burkinabe fintech will dominate its other competitors. In any case, the latter has a good chance of being attractive, because its banking technology solution provides a response to the desire of banks to send products to customers that are difficult to assess and could allow the group to achieve at least three objectives: improving financial inclusion, by reaching a large number of people, expanding its clientele and increasing its income.
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