Global Finance has named Ecobank as the most innovative bank in Africa at the eighth Global Finance annual awards, the Innovators 2020, which was themed “honouring entities that regularly identify new paths and design new tools in finance.”
Other categories in the award include Top Innovations in Corporate Finance, Payments, Trade Finance, Cash Management, Islamic Finance, with Winners selected from different regions of the world.
The classes of award comprised Most Innovative Banks in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America and Western Europe; The Most Innovative Fintech Companies in Asia-Pacific, Central & Eastern Europe, North America and Western Europe; and The Best Financial Innovation Labs.
At the virtual awards announcement, the European Editor at Global Finance and Leader of Global Finance Awards evaluation team, Anita Hawser, noted that firms recognized at the Innovators 2020 significantly stood apart.
She said the review panel looked at innovation in the context of product or process innovation, as they were ultimately more concerned with the impact of innovation in terms of creating value for customers or addressing a specific need, like speeding up lending or credit review process for small businesses; enabling companies to deposit cheques remotely and not having to visit the branches.
According to her, these are innovations that significantly reduce the time or cost of firms to perform financial tasks and really transform customers’ business lives helping them operate more effectively in a significantly challenging business and economic environment.
Ecobank’s remarks about the award
The CEO of Ecobank Group, Ade Ayeyemi, in his remarks about the award said: “We are pleased to be recognised as the “Most Innovative Bank in Africa” by Global Finance. This attests to the strength of our brand in multiple countries across Africa, our unique pan-African platform, and our innovative banking products and solutions made possible by the success of our digital transformation journey.”
Being one of the most recognised banks operating in West, Central, East and Southern Africa, Ecobank is the only bank with banking operations that has presences in 33 African countries, therefore, operating a truly integrated African network that includes one unified integrated Ecobank Mobile Banking App, that works across all 33 operating countries in Africa; one Ecobank Omni and Omni Lite serving Multinationals and SMEs in Africa; one Rapidtransfer app that breaks down country borders and allows the diaspora community send money directly to their loved ones, instantly and affordably across Africa; one Ecobank Online Banking platform that can be easily accessed across the 33 African countries.
About the Ecobank Group
The Ecobank Group’s unique and largest pan-African platform according to the firm is designed to help unlock the opportunities of the continent, for the benefit of the continent, through standardization, thereby enabling regional integration, and trade and investment across borders.
With the Group’s excellent performance, it has been recognized as ‘Best Retail Bank in Africa 2019’ at African Banker Awards; Most Admired Financial Services Brand in Africa 2019 by Brand Africa 100; Best Digital Bank in Africa – 2017 by Euromoney Awards; Best Retail Bank and Innovation in Banking both in 2018 by the African Banker Awards amongst others.
