As part of efforts to grow its flagship annual fintech initiative, pan-African banking conglomerate, Ecobank Group, has appointed one of the continent’s renowned professionals in the field of information communications technology (ICT) Mrs. Aissatou Djiba Diallo who was before now a senior Fintech Advisor at senior management staff at Microsoft. Speaking on the development the Bank’s Group Executive, Operations and Technology, Mr. Eddy Ogbogu, said that Djiba’s appointment represents an important step in the overall Ecobank Group’s fintech and digital agenda , noting that the  expertise, passion and innovation she brings to the role will allow us take the next crucial steps on our path to further cementing our position as Africa’s leading digital bank.

Mrs. Djiba is expected to lead the Bank Group’s fintech initiatives and advise senior management on the banking group’s fintech strategy. Bank sources say that her appointment is an important step in the ongoing implementation of the group’s broader digital strategy and demonstrates Ecobank’s commitment to playing a major and high-profile role in helping Africa’s innovative fintech sector to achieve significant global market share.

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Also, her office will focus on growing the bank’s flagship annual fintech initiative – the Ecobank Fintech Challenge and Ecobank Fintech Fellowship – through which the Ecobank group has promoted Africa’s most promising fintech start-ups. The programme which provides selected fintechs with the opportunity to fast-track their growth by gaining a commercial partnership and product integration with Ecobank’s pan-African platform and unified ecosystem. The third edition of the Challenge and Fellowship comes up in 2020.

Speaking on her new position, Djiba, who has served as a Judge of the two previous editions of The Challenge and Fellowship, said that she is delighted to become a part of the vision of the Ecobank Group in supporting the development of African fintechs and further drive the continent’s economic development. Fintech is an important part of the Bank’s goal to vastly increase its customer numbers across its pan-African footprint of 33 countries and open up market access and integration for Africa’s fintech ecosystem. She added that in the past  three years, the bank has significantly strengthened its partnerships with start-ups and that she is excited that the Group CEO and senior management of the Bank have prioritised new waves of initiatives to expand the work with fintechs and deliver a whole new level of win-win collaborations that will positively impact African lives and grow African fintech businesses.

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Djiba who holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France, and she is an aeronautics enthusiast, before this appointment, she was Head of Innovations at Microsoft4Afrika, where she built the strategy to identify, support and attract key African fintech start-ups and partners to the Microsoft Cloud platform and oversaw 50 countries. Before that she was Marketing Manager and Partner and Strategy Program Lead for West and Central Africa, Microsoft.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry.