Fintech 100 Recognizes 5 African Companies

Five companies emerged as winners of the Inaugural Africa Fintech Awards that was held in Johannesburg on October 13th.

Cellulant, a Pan-African mobile commerce company, emerged as the “Best African Payments and Transfer Company” in this year’s African FinTech 100 Awards.

Headquartered in Nairobi, Cellulant was among more than 100 FinTech companies shortlisted for the Africa FinTech 100 Awards, competing with 93 other companies in the Payment and Transfer category, which is considered the most competitive.

Other nominees included Interswitch, mPesa, VoguePay, I-Pay, Zoona, Hello Paisa, Yoco, Paga, eTransact, and more.

The judges first selected the final three nominees in each category from hundreds put forward through an extensive voting process. They were then each assessed based on innovation, value, delivery, traction, and customer satisfaction. The climax of the competition was a seven-minute demonstration followed by a Q&A by the judges to establish the winner of the category.

Interswitch and VoguePay are the companies that were shortlisted as the Top 3 in the Payment and Transfer category in addition to Cellulant.

After receiving the award, Cellulant’s CEO Ken Njoroge said, “This award is the result of our team’s tireless input to create and sustain value for our customers in the countries we operate in. 

“We serve customers in the banking sector, mobile money operators, merchants and retailers who use our payment platform to run their businesses. These teams are also doing transformational work in agriculture and the fast moving consumer goods value chains.

“We are just entering a new phase of growth increasing the coverage of countries we can serve our customers from the current 10 to 30. This award provides a shot of adrenaline for that starting line.”

Founded in 2004 by Njoroge and Nigerian Bolaji Akinboro, Cellulant is already well-established in Africa, with offices in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Mozambique.

The African FinTech Awards is the place where innovative and disruptive FinTech companies are awarded. More than 500 entrepreneurs, bankers, investors and advisors attend the event, providing opportunities to extend networks, exchange knowledge, and develop business.

The African FinTech Awards forms an integrated part of Finance Indaba Africa, with the awards serving as the largest conference and expo for finance professionals on the continent.

The full list of FinTech winners include Cellulant — Category: Payments & Transfers; The Sun Exchange — Category: Blockchain & Bitcoin; Ovamba — Category: Lending & Financing; EasyEquities – SatrixNow (Overall Winner, Category: InvestTec);  Baobab by Microcred — Category: Retail Banking; FNB — Category: Incumbent Bank.

Learn more about the FinTech 2016 here.