About the Program:
The Zenith Bank Startup Pitch Competition 2025, branded as ZECathon 4.0, is a premier pan-African initiative hosted at the Zenith Bank Tech Fair, designed to ignite Africa’s next wave of innovators by spotlighting Generative AI, Agentic AI, and emerging technologies reshaping industries continent-wide. From Lagos to the Gambia, Sierra Leone to Accra, this competition serves as a continental stage where bold ideas converge with opportunity, enabling startups to showcase solutions that drive real-world impact. Organized by Zenith Bank Plc in partnership with Beyond Limits, the program identifies, nurtures, and accelerates early-stage ventures across diverse sectors such as Fintech, AgriTech, HealthTech, ClimateTech, E-commerce, and more, providing unparalleled visibility, mentorship, and resources to facilitate scalable growth. Building on the success of previous editions—like the 2024 event where winners such as Jumpnpass secured N25 million in prizes—the 2025 iteration empowers African entrepreneurs to dream bigger, move faster, and transform visionary concepts into sustainable enterprises, fostering innovation that transcends borders and propels economic development across the continent.
Why Join Zecathon 5.0?:
- Compete for ₦140 million in total cash prizes
- Showcase your talent and ideas on a continental stage
- Access mentorship, resources, and growth opportunities
- Collaborate with Africa’s brightest innovators
- Turn your ideas into real-world impact
Eligibility Criteria:
Eligibility for the Zenith Bank Startup Pitch Competition 2025 is tailored to early-stage African innovators ready to scale.
- Applicants must be African startups with a legally registered business entity,
- Applicants MUST be operating within one or more of the program’s focus sectors, including
- FMCG
- Insurance
- Education
- Retail & E-Commerce
- Payments & Lending
- Cybersecurity
- Agriculture, Healthcare
- Transportation & Logistics, alongside broader categories like
- Fintech
- AgriTech
- HealthTech
- ClimateTech,
- E-commerce.
- A viable product or Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with demonstrated initial market traction is essential, coupled with a scalable business model exhibiting clear potential for growth and impact.
- Startups must align with the competition’s emphasis on innovative technologies such as Generative AI and Agentic AI, ensuring that applications reflect solutions with transformative potential for African industries.
- Incomplete or non-compliant submissions will be disqualified, emphasizing the need for thorough documentation of business registration, product viability, and sector relevance.
Benefits of the Program:
- ₦30,000,000 for the 1st place winner
- ₦10,000,000 each for 2nd through 5th places, providing critical capital for product development, market expansion, and operational scaling.
- Beyond financial rewards, top finalists gain entry into a six-week intensive incubation program in January 2026, offering tailored training, strategic refinement of business models, and direct access to a robust network of mentors, investors, and ecosystem stakeholders.
- The program further delivers continental visibility through the Zenith Bank Tech Fair, forging partnerships, media exposure, and collaboration opportunities that amplify reach from local markets to pan-African and global stages.
Application Deadline:
Application for this program are open for entries until the 31st of October, 2025. Make sure to apply today as it will close by midnight.
Application Process:
Interested applicants should apply for this program using the application link below:
We at Icanstudent wish you the very best in your application process. Don’t forget to follow the Icanstudent website for more information and guidelines on how to be top applicant in your scholarship application process. Good luck!!!
