To help address a series of discreet challenges to financial inclusion across Caribbean islands, the European Union, Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) are launching the Caribbean FinTech Sprint for Financial Inclusion in partnership with the Ministry of Finance of Trinidad and Tobago and the Trinidad and Tobago International Financial Centre (TTIFC) FinTech Hub with support from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

The challenge aims to attract local and global FinTechs with market-ready solutions to address identified problem statements that represent the challenges Trinidad and Tobago, and Eastern Caribbean Countries face in developing the digital payments ecosystem.

The challenge will strengthen cross-sector collaboration by bringing together the financial ecosystem across the Caribbean to support innovation and financial inclusion.

Implementing partners of the Caribbean FinTech Sprint for Financial Inclusion include NAMDEVCO, CLICO Credit Union, RHAND Credit Union, The Co-operative Credit Union League of T&T, DCash and Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Additionally, the challenge is being supported by outreach partners UNDP, VISA, AMCHAM, and EUROCHAM.

The application deadline is now closed. Applicants submitted a proposal for live solutions that address the following identified challenges. "Read More" to learn more about the challenges.

- Applicants can apply by themselves, with a partner or as a consortium.

- The applicant/ lead applicant must:

• Only apply once under this RFA (either independently, in partnership or in a consortium)
• Be a registered entity in any country with at least 1 year of operations as a FinTech or a technology company.
• Submit audited financial statements for at least one operating year or the latest management accounts
• Have a live solution with an active customer and/or user base and should not be in the development or testing phase. Active customer/user defined as having transacted with the start-up/solution at least once in the last 90 days.

- Applicants can include:

• FinTechs
• Technology providers
• Digital delivery providers
• Payment service providers
• Money service business
• E-money issuers
• Licensed financial institutions
• Licensed non-bank institutions

- Joint applications between market players in the target country or countries are encouraged if the proposed solution expands delivery networks and promotes rural and/or other last-mile access to financial services.

- For further information on the eligibility criteria for applicants, please refer to Section 3.1 of the RFA.

FinTechs are to submit their application, along with the required documents, through our dedicated online UNCDF Plug-and-Play e-investment platform.

Download the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) below for more clarity on the Caribbean FinTech Sprint for Financial Inclusion.

If the FAQs do not offer sufficient clarification, inquiries to applications may be submitted by email to: eastern.caribbean@uncdf.org.
For any email enquiries, please include in your subject line: “The Eastern Caribbean FinTech Sprint for Financial Inclusion.”