ECOBANK PARTNER PAGE
The Pan-African bank banking Nigeria's small businesses, and hosting the room.
From the first Fintech Challenge to Ellevate for women-led businesses and the Pan African Centre itself, Ecobank Nigeria has built the rails, the capital and the venue small businesses use. In 2026 it hosts GROW Nigerian and puts every marketplace business on its digital payment platform.
- 11M+
- customers in Nigeria
- 50,000+
- agency banking locations
- 250+
- branches
- $250M+
- lent to women entrepreneurs across the Group through Ellevate
- 60
- fintechs inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship
IMPACT ON THE MSME SPACE
A decade of rails, capital and rooms for Nigerian business.
- 2017FINTECH CHALLENGE
The first Ecobank Fintech Challenge
A pan-African call for tech innovators and entrepreneurs, with a $500,000 funding pool in its first edition. Sixty fintechs have since been inducted into the Ecobank Fintech Fellowship.
- 2018DIGITAL RAILS
EcobankPay and the SME Club
QR and USSD cashless payments for merchants through EcobankPay, alongside Ecobank Mobile, *326#, OmniLite and POS, plus an SME Club proposition later enhanced as the Emerald Club.
- 2020ELLEVATE
Ellevate launches across 33 countries
Ecobank's gender-financing programme for women-owned, women-led and women-focused SMEs launches group-wide on 27 November 2020; Ecobank Nigeria unveils it on 7 July 2021.
- 2021THE VENUE
Ecobank Pan African Centre opens
EPAC opens on Ozumba Mbadiwe Road, Victoria Island, commissioned by the Governor of Lagos State in October 2021. The venue for GROW Nigerian 2026.
- 2024RECOGNITION
Best SME bank, twice over
Global Finance names Ecobank among the World's Best SME Banks 2024 (regional winner); Euromoney names Ecobank Transnational Incorporated Africa's best bank for SMEs 2025.
- 2025ELLEVATE SCALES
More than $250 million to women entrepreneurs
The Group reports over $250 million lent to women entrepreneurs across the continent and sets out to scale it significantly; in March 2026 Ecobank Nigeria extends Ellevate across every business segment.
- 2026GROW NIGERIAN
Host of the National MSME Conference
8–10 November at the Ecobank Pan African Centre. Every business inside the MSME Marketplace is onboarded onto the Ecobank digital payment platform on the day.
AT GROW NIGERIAN 2026
Host venue. Payment rails for 156 businesses.
Ecobank doesn't just lend the room. It runs the money behind the marketplace and teaches the rails on stage.
- Hosts all three days at the Ecobank Pan African Centre, Victoria Island
- Onboards every marketplace exhibitor onto the Ecobank digital payment platform on the day
- Workshop: Your First Digital Payment Rail. Makers' Bench, Day 2, led by the Ecobank team
- Ecobank onboarding consent is part of every marketplace application